StandAlone
by CassusFacade
Summary: Ten thousand people were trapped in Aincrad. That was over four years ago. It might as well be a lifetime. How many are left, Kirito couldn't say, but the times between seeing any of them have grown longer and longer. He's just a solo player, trudging alone towards the one thing left that matters: making it to the end of the world.
1. Is the Loneliest Number

Kirito had never been on a plane, nor had he ever had any real desire to ride one. Still, he was capable of understanding humanity's fascination with flight; the concept wasn't alien to him. There was something supposedly liberating in the idea, to be able to cast off one's shackles to the world below and take off and be, however briefly, free. Looking at it from that angle, it seemed quite appealing. As Kirito sailed through the air, none of these thoughts crossed his mind. In fact, he found the entire experience less than pleasant. This might have been due to the fact that his flight was less than smooth, instead tumbling wildly through the air, or that his launch had been against his best efforts, or that he wasn't even in an aircraft.

It might also have been due to his lateral flight coming to an abrupt and jarring halt as his body slammed solidly into the stone wall. His momentum gone, Kirito then flopped down to the floor, a full twenty meters from where he'd been launched. Stars danced in his vision from his head's impact into the wall as he coughed in pain. He clutched at his side, trying to get some of the air that was forced out of him back into his lungs.

The creature that had thrown him paused, waiting to see what he'd do next. It was a male lamia chimera, with the distinction of having its upper body covered in thick brown fur, capped with the head of a bear. The humanoid portion of its body was three times the size of a normal person, with four arms, each holding a slender kris type sword made of undulating steel. From the waist down the flesh flowed into the body of a snake, covered in brick red scales, reaching eight meters to the steel tipped tail.

The monster threw its arms behind it and thrust its chest forward, roaring in triumph. Finally able to breathe again, Kirito rolled over and brought himself up to his knees. The last of the creature's four health bars was partially depleted, but Kirito was nearly in the red himself. Kirito couldn't retreat; the Vasiliás Fídi was a floor boss, and the door to the arena had sealed the moment the fight had begun. The active anti-crystal field ruled out any escape that way. Either he was going to die, or it was.

Kirito stayed down on one knee, taking a moment to steady himself. The Vasiliás tended to only attack a standing foe, so he had a few more seconds before it got tired of waiting. He stabbed his Elucidator into the stone floor and reached into one of his pockets, drawing out a health potion. The drink was especially potent, and would put his health back in the green in just over thirty seconds. It was the last one he had outside his inventory, it would take too long to summon another if he needed it.

He needed it now.

Kirito stared at the object resting in his palm, looking between his red health bar and the likewise red beverage.

"Kirito!" He heard a voice shout with urgency.

He frowned, clutching the flask in his hand.

"Kirito," she repeated, "get up!"

He closed his eyes and shook his head, trying to remove the last twinkling stars from the corners of his eyes. The chimera decided it was finished waiting, but was in no hurry. With slow undulations of its reptilian lower body, it lazily slithered his way. He placed the potion back in his pocket and stood up, plucking his sword from the floor and preparing himself.

Sensing the challenge, the beast coiled its tail behind it and lunged forward, closing the distance between them in a heartbeat. Kirito had anticipated the move, charging forward and to the side, evading the strike. His off handed sword, a brightly coloured weapon in contrast to his blackened Elucidator, shone a vibrant blue as he slipped forward. Instead of meeting his target head on, he passed by, closely to its left, dragging his off handed sword along the length of its lower body as he ran.

The Vasiliás Fídi roared in anger and snapped its tail at him, forcing him to disengage long enough for it to bring its upper body around to face him. With a flurry of flashing steel, it attacked him in a continuous stream of rapid strikes. Kirito slowly retreated, blocking each attack with either of his own swords, the exchange of blows filling the area with the sound of rapid fire reports.

 _Faster!_ He urged himself.

With twice the swords coming at him than he could wield himself, he knew he couldn't last for too long. A few light cuts managed to push through his defenses, sinking his health even farther. Finally, seeing an opening, Kirito counter attacked, knocking aside the monster's two right swords long enough to strike at the corresponding wrists. His swords took on an angry glow as they hacked at the limbs. The reward for his efforts was the upper right hand dropping to the floor as the wrist was severed. He parried the attacks from the left, repeating the tactic and removing the lower left in the middle of its forearm.

Kirito drew Elucidator back, point forward and thrust it at its chest. The Vasiliás Fídi recoiled with a pained howl that made his ears ring, rising away from him on its muscular tail. With a rage filled roar, it slammed back down, bringing both remaining swords in heavy over strikes. Kirito rolled to the right, safely out of the way, only coming back to his feet in time for the tail to snap around quicker than he could dodge. The appendage slammed into him and his feet left the ground.

His landing was improvised, but a great deal more graceful than his last. As he hit the floor, he tumbled into a backwards somersault. The maneuvre ended with him back on one knee, stabbing both swords into the floor to grind to a halt. The chimera didn't wait this time, pressing the attack immediately. Its health was nearly gone, and Kirito's had begun to flash.

 _Get up!_ He shouted internally. _Not today!_

Kirito glanced at his HUD, checking the cooldown timer of his system skills. As he watched and his foe approached, the one he needed became available again. He rose, pulling his off hand weapon back at shoulder height, the sword point forward. His grip shifted, with the handle of the sword resting a little awkwardly between his middle and forefinger, with the fingers lightly gripping the crossguard from below, relatively. Stepping forward, he grunted with effort and whipped the arm forward, launching the sword like an improvised javelin. It sailed at the creature's face. While it was mid-flight, Kirito brought his main blade close and activated the needed skill.

The floor boss swept both of its remaining swords upwards in opposing rotations, ending with both weapons out to its sides. It blinked, for a split second surprised by Kirito's sudden attack. While the sword-turned-projectile had obscured its vision and supplied the needed distraction, Kirito had activated his dash attack as the distraction was batted away. With both of the chimera's blades out of the way, his next move was completely unimpeded. Kirito flashed forward at an almost impossible speed, sword straight out in a thrust. Elucidator impaled the Vasiliás Fídi straight through its sternum, jabbing out through its spine. Not yet finished, Kirito quickly braced his feet against its lower abdomen and grabbed his left hand onto its collar bone. Once secure, and before the monster could react with anything further than a surprised scream, Kirito retrieved his blade and thrust again, this time angled upwards. The black sword punched through its throat, impaling it again.

Kirito saw its last health bar empty. The final blow struck, Kirito kicked off its chest to avoid any attacks after the fact before it expired. He quickly disengaged as the Vasiliás Fídi made one last swipe at him before it toppled over and breathed its last. There was a massive death rattle as the pressure escaped its lungs, just before it burst into crystalline blue shards.

The long fight finally over, Kirito felt his fatigue catching up with him, refusing to be delayed any further. He dropped to his knees, and like the monster he'd just vanquished, sank to the floor, only rolling onto his back with a tired heave. He lie there for the next several minutes, watching his health slowly regenerate at a nearly imperceptibly slow pace. There was once a time he would brag about his health regeneration, before it was rendered obsolete and useless in the midst of battle.

There was no congratulatory banner hovering in the air to announce his victory, nor were there any of the musical swells that would normally accompany the defeat of a new floor boss. There was only the after battle report pop up panel that had disappeared while Kirito stared at the ceiling, waiting for his adrenaline fueled breathing to slow back down. He was curious what the report had said, but he was tired, exhausted by the ordeal. It could wait, if just for a few minutes. He closed his eyes and breathed in deep through his nose.

With the fight over and nothing else in the room but him, there was an almost complete silence. One could lose themselves in it if they weren't already too long used to it.

"What were you thinking?" The voice admonished him. She wasn't angry, but concerned.

Done resting, Kirito snapped his eyes open and scrunched forward, pulling himself to his feet with a tired grunt. The tip of his Elucidator scripped and scraped against the floor as he used it as a walking stick to take some of the weight off his feet while he made his way over to retrieve his other sword. He sheathed his main weapon on his back before picking it up, lovingly wiping away a smudge from the flat of the blade. The brightly coloured sword was a personal treasure of his, and he felt obligated to chastise himself, even if only internally, for doing something so foolish as throwing it. Once finished, it was sheathed beside its mate.

Finally, he waved his hand to summon his menu, checking the spoils from his battle. The Vasiliás Fídi was not a new floor boss. In fact, Kirito had come here to fight it five times before in twice as many days. Each time, he'd defeated it alone. Then again, that was to be expected. It had a chance of dropping one of the rare components needed to upgrade his off handed sword. Instead, it had yet again dropped nothing more than an ornate kris that was inferior to either of his own weapons, and some lower grade crafting items to be added to the stockpile.

Kirito looked between his inventory and his health bar, just now filling enough to stop flashing. He frowned in disappointment.

 _Not today._ He thought. Like any floor boss, the Vasiliás Fídi would respawn in forty eight hours. _Maybe next time._

With nothing further to accomplish here, he turned towards the arena entrance to begin his long trek through the boss labyrinth and back to the nearest town. A quick glance to his HUD answered the unspoken question of the time.

[10:46 PM, July 15, 2027]

There was a single pair of footfalls as he trudged towards the exit, more shuffling then stepping.

He was as alone as he was when he'd entered.

* * *

Author's Notes: A 'what if' scenario, following Kirito as a solo player in Aincrad. With writing Ergo, which is full of characters and OCs and is dialogue heavy, I wanted to try and also write something that is very much the opposite of that.

EDIT: Minor detail. Added one year to the date. Not of immediate importance but it matters later.


	2. Can be as Bad as One

The oversized wooden double doors pushed outwards with a creaking groan as Kirito pressed his palms into them. Beyond was the area outside the boss labyrinth. He'd been here enough times now to have little trouble navigating his way back. He hadn't even needed his map on this trip. The night had a beautiful clear sky, with a half-moon trying its best to illuminate the world below with its pale glow. Kirito didn't care either way for the aesthetics of the scene, but did find it useful. He panned his head back and forth, scanning the area as far as he could for any threats.

He stepped out from the stone floor of the labyrinth to the sand of the desert it was located in. In all directions was nothing but flat sand, broken by the occasional stony outcropping. There was no vegetation, and no movement from any nearby mobs or players as far as he could see. Kirito had never liked desert areas. The sand was coarse and irritating, and it got everywhere. Thankfully, there was no breeze to compel it to do so. Once he was satisfied that the area was secure, he started towards one of the nearby sets of rocks.

They were a good ten minute walk away, purposefully chosen because they weren't the closest to the dungeon entrance, and were large enough to perform their task without being too obvious, standing half a meter taller than him. He doubted there was anyone to hide from, but it was better to be cautious than not. As he grew closer, a head peeked out from one of the rocks. His traveling companion blinked, and then disappeared back from view. Feeling like he was somehow keeping her waiting, senseless as that was, he sped up his pace. Even walking in sand was unpleasant, feet rolling in the soft earth. He stepped into the rough ring of rocks, and two heads turned his way, one attached to the first figure and another that was lying down on the ground.

He clicked his tongue at the pair and beckoned with his hand. The larger of the two gave a huff and stood up, shaking the sand from his coat. The one that had spotted him before stepped up to him, tilting her head up to meet his eyes. Her feline eyes lit up in the moonlight.

Kirito resisted the instinct to reach out and pat her head. "Yonaka: follow."

The command given, Kirito stepped around his panther and up to his horse. Klein had once suggested he get a dog, citing something about them being man's best friend, but Kirito had settled on the panther. While he wasn't really much of a dog or cat person in the real world, he found that in Aincrad the latter was more useful to him. A panther wouldn't bark and give away his position, and wasn't as needy or attached as a dog. A panther was more capable in a fight than a wolf, with a larger, more intimating shape.

Still, he wouldn't want to count on either in a fight against any player. His cat was also adept at blending into the night. Finally, if he were pressed to admit it, the black feline also tied in well with his colour scheme. It just wouldn't be right for the Black Swordsman to wear a black long coat, with black pants and wield a black sword, with a head of black hair, only to screw everything up with a leopard or the wrong colour dog.

For what he needed, Yonaka filled the job adequately. She was his alarm when he was sleeping in the field, and a layer of protection for his horse whenever he left it outside a quest. As Kirito wiped away some sand clinging to his saddle, his cat pressed its muzzle into his kidney. He allowed it, but didn't acknowledge it. As far as he was concerned, it wasn't his pet and it wasn't his friend. It wasn't even really a panther. It was a collection of data: an animalistic, somewhat dumber NPC. Like his horse and his sword, it was a tool, and little more.

He remembered how attached Silica had been to her pet dragon, and was always a little confused by it. It just didn't make any sense to project a feeling of companionship onto a pile of code and voxels. Yonaka nudged him again, more sternly. Kirito simply grabbed onto the saddle horn and hoisted himself up. It was tempting to sleep here for the night, but he didn't want to be in the desert after sunrise. It was cool now, but it wouldn't be later. Taking hold of the reins, he tapped the heels of his boots against the horse's side and uttered a 'hup'.

He navigated it out of the ring of rocks and turned it east, towards the town they'd come from. There was no rush, so he let his horse set its own pace. No point in tiring it out without reason. The four hooves beat a steady rhythm into the sand as Yonaka followed a little behind and to the side. His destination was a two hour ride away if they kept at this pace uninterrupted. Not long enough to sleep during the trip, and too dangerous to consider either way. Hostile mobs spawned more frequently at night, often of a more nocturnal variety. Deserts did this even more so.

Several times he was forced to stop his horse, disembark and kill a group of scorpions the size of his ride. Yonaka could kill one or two by herself, but there were frequently more in their groups. He could always try and dispatch them from horseback, but he'd long ago decided that wasn't worth it. His one handed swords were not long enough for the task, and doing so just put the expensive animal at risk.

It was nearly two o'clock in the morning by the time he'd arrived at the gates of Jastagan. It was the final town on this floor, being situated closest to the boss labyrinth. This was reflected in its larger than average size, to accommodate the player traffic as people used it to warp to other floors or to congregate for an attack on the boss. Its walls were made of sandstone, standing ten meters high. The town might as well as been invisible from a distance, with its barricades the same colour as the sand it sat upon, but seemed to appear suddenly as one got close enough.

Kirito dismounted his horse and walked towards the closed gates, bringing his vehicle along by the reins. As he approached, the head of an NPC guard peeked out from over the wall's parapet. A few moments after the asking for entry, the gates were opened, and he stepped into the town. Jastagan was asleep, with Kirito alone treading its roads. His first task was to park his horse in the stable slot he'd already rented. Without any further delay, he made his way to the inn he was staying at.

The innkeeper was roused from his own slumber after a few moments spent heavily knocking on the door. Once he was let in, he wasted no time in getting to his room and disarming. His swords and their sheaths were unstrapped from his back and placed on the floor, leaning against the bedside table. Yonaka, the dutiful guard, curled up on the floor facing the door. His clothes were unceremoniously shed in a pile, leaving him in a grey t-shirt and his undershorts. His perpetrations complete, Kirito let the day's ordeals catch up with him, and he flopped face first onto the bed.

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Kirito woke from a pleasantly dreamless slumber when the morning sunlight filtering in through the gap between the shutters finished its journey across his face to land over his eyes. He scrunched them closed tighter, but knew the battle was already lost. With a defeated yawn, he sat up and folded the covers off of himself. With a twist he turned to the side, letting his feet hang off the edge onto the floor. Yonaka wasn't immune to the effect, stretching her toothy maw open as the yawn became contagious.

He started donning the pile of clothes from the day before, prompting his cat to take to its feet, slowly pacing in small circles.

Kirito opened the door and exited the rented room, Yonaka following behind. The cat never did much like enclosed spaces for too long. He flicked a coin to the innkeeper as he stepped up to the front desk and checked out. There was no point in sticking around waiting for the boss to respawn; he could always return in two days. Still, there were a few errands he could take care of while he was here. He issued the command to set Yonaka into a free wandering mode, and the cat excitedly took off to hunt for its breakfast. She wouldn't stray too far, far enough to either catch some vermin in town or appropriate prey in the nearby area.

The first thing to do was to sell the kris sword he'd gained, as it was otherwise useless to him. Having been to this town enough times to know the layout, he strolled confidently down the center of the road towards his favoured blacksmith in Jastagan. He summoned a strip of jerky to tide him over until he could have a more full breakfast in a place where he wouldn't have to worry about sand working its way into it. The time was almost eleven in the morning, but the streets were nearly barren.

The path he found himself on was the town's main road, and was about two lanes wide if it were to accommodate carts or wagons. It was fashioned like an open, outdoor bazaar, with shops running along either side. Jastagan, like the first and, in this case last town of most floors, was a great place to find most things if you were willing to invest the time and money to find and pay for it. This had become more difficult as time had gone on, but there was always at least a blacksmith to be found.

In its heyday, such a road would have been full of NPC and players vendors alike trying to sell their goods to anyone whose attention they could grab. There would have been a chaotic mix of voices shouting over each other, melding together into a constant din. Instead, there was silence, punctuated by Kirito's footsteps and the soft rustling of the cloth awnings in the passing breeze. Most of the stalls were empty, but there were a scant few with a dead faced NPC that would turn his way and register his presence, but at his brisk pace he was past them before they could speak. Once they were behind him, they would return to their idle position, standing behind their stall, staring at nothing.

It wasn't much of a surprise anymore, though it never got any less discomforting. It was just a consequence of how the game distributed and conserved system resources. The more players there were in a town, the more NPCs there would be, and the more lifelike they would behave. More processing power would be used to run more NPCs, and have them behave more real the more players there in the area to witness them. Back when there were ten thousand people spread throughout the game, this had been necessary to insure the game as a whole ran smoothly. At present, this was no longer the case, but the system kept performing as if it were.

There wasn't a single other human in sight. Kirito had no doubt that he was the only person in Jastagan. With Kirito as the only human in town, the system generated fewer NPCs, and supplied less effort in making them anything more than lifeless robots. In theory, this wasn't supposed to happen in towns too often, as there would always be a few people present at the same time, and an occasional break in immersion was deemed acceptable so some much busier city elsewhere could would have all the power it needed. He hadn't seen anyone else the last five times he'd been here, either.

A bell jingled over the door as Kirito entered the blacksmith's shop past the far end of the bazaar. He'd never bothered to read the name of it. The NPC owner blinked as it came out of its idle animations and turned its head towards him. He had the same face as two of the NPCs in the bazaar.

"Greetings, traveler." It said in a gruff but inflectionless voice.

The battle the night prior had taken its toll on his equipment. He unsheathed and passed over his swords to be repaired. A stack of coins was placed on the counter top while he performed a cursory search of the shop for some decent throwing knives to replace the ones he'd spent. His eyes landed on an acceptable set and another stack of coins was placed alongside the first. Over his shirt but under his long coat, Kirito wore a harness with vertically stacked sheaths running up both sides of his lower back. Each side could accommodate four of the blades. There were other, larger harnesses with greater capacity, but he didn't want to be weighed down too much. As it was, he could smoothly reach either hand behind himself and have a slim projectile to let loose. Eight were purchased and inserted into the empty sheaths.

The prices here were low enough that he purchased an additional few sets of the same knives and placed them into his inventory. After waiting a few minutes the blacksmith returned with his swords. Their business concluded, Kirito moved on to have the same work done on his long coat at the appropriate type of craftsman.

It didn't take long to complete the rest of his errands, purchasing potions or other supplies to replenish his stocks. Ready to leave, he retrieved his horse from the stable. As they approached the town's hub of teleport gates, he placed a pair of fingers to his lips and blew out a loud, piercing whistle. Shortly after he heard the rapidly approaching steps of Yonaka. The cat was just finishing wolfing down some kind of bird it had caught as it dutifully took her spot at his side.

Kirito took one last look around the town centre. The teleport hub was built to accommodate crowds of people coming or going, but there wasn't a soul in sight. Finished with this place for the time being, Kirito keyed in his destination floor and stepped through the gateway's threshold. There was a rush of breakneck speed as Kirito was transported from Jastagan up to Myrtrix. It took twenty seconds loading time for Kirito to be deposited from the void of the portal.

It came as no surprise that this town was lifeless as Jastagan. Before, he might have called out to anyone that might hear him, or search around to try and find them. Now, he knew it was pointless. There was nobody there. There was nobody in this town, there might not have been anyone on this floor, and if there was, he wasn't sure if he'd want to find them.

Kirito had no reason to linger, it was just a stop on the way to the next town. Each city or town in Aincrad had at least one teleport gateway which could be used to jump between any other teleporter on the same floor once they had been unlocked. In order to unlock a teleporter, a player first had to travel under his own power to said location. The only exceptions to this were the first towns of each floor. So long as the floor boss had been cleared, one could skip that encounter and use the final town to connect to the first on the floor above it. The only teleport gateways that could be used to travel up or down to other floors were the first city and the last, found near the floor's boss labyrinth.

Jastagan was the last city of its floor, and he had used it to travel to Mytrix, the first city of its floor. He'd come here since he had yet to travel to this floor's final city or boss labyrinth. A new destination was keyed in, and Kirito stepped through into the town of Syldren. The little assortment of wooden houses was the farthest he'd traveled. He'd just discovered and unlocked the place a little over two weeks ago before he'd diverted to trying to farm the Vasiliás Fídi, unsuccessful and tiring as that was turning out. Kirito still hadn't taken the time to properly search the town. Not that he expected to find any people here, but perhaps things they'd left behind.

Kirito shivered and buttoned his long coat shut. The temperature was a cool but comfortable twenty degrees, but it was a bit jarring to transition to that directly from the heat of the desert.

Syldren was a smaller settlement and didn't have a stable. He tied his horse to a bench and set Yonaka to stand watch with the subroutine to come fetch him if she spotted anything human. Kirito casually walked through the empty streets, beginning his sweep. There wasn't a single NPC outdoors in sight; nothing moved on its own but him. He cracked open the door to a general store and peeked his head in. The NPC standing rigidly behind the desk turned its head to face him with a blank expression.

Kirito ignored the character completely, looking around the rest of the room. _Nothing here._

He closed the door without comment and continued on to the next. Each little store that was operational was the same, with a single NPC stationed inside in the event that he chose to shop there. Most of the buildings were vacant, opening to reveal nothing inside but bare walls. Syldren was running on the bare minimum settings, having only been loaded because he had come here.

SAO only loaded areas that were in a certain range of its players. The town of Syldren had been loaded from an archive once he'd set the warp gate to take him here. After he was gone the town would eventually cease to be, returning to the ether in an updated saved state.

Finding nothing in or around the center of town, Kirito moved outwards towards the residential area. All the vacant or NPC homes were decorated much the same, following one of only a few local variants, causing several of them to be identical. Kirito passed these up and walked directly to the one red house in the entire area. It was a small structure that might have comfortably held one or two people. It could have either been someone's home or a secondary outpost or storehouse.

Kirito stepped up to the front door and rapped his knuckles on it a few times. The window to the right of the door had no shutters, and a peek inside showed that the curtains were open. He could see the common room and into the kitchen. He knocked again and waited a few moments. As anticipated, silence answered him. Satisfied with that, Kirito dropped to one knee in front of the door and pulled a set of lock picks from his right thigh's pocket.

With practiced precision, he unlocked the door in short order. The barrier defeated, he passed through the threshold inside. There was no point in announcing himself further; if the house had still been owned by anybody, it would not have been possible to pick the lock. Breaking the window would have worked, too, but it was louder, and if the place _was_ still player owned it would have turned his icon red and summoned the town guards.

Kirito closed the door behind him and walked over to a coffee table. He wiped a finger over its surface, coming away with a thick layer of dust. Whoever had owned this place had been gone a long time. They'd either sold the place back to the town without clearing out their furniture, or they were dead. One of these was much more likely than the other.

 _Let's hope they left behind something good._ He thought to himself.

Kirito started his search of the place, checking for anything he might want. The layout of the house only had three rooms. There was the common room, which connected to the kitchen and was only separated by a half wall, and there was a bedroom. There was nothing but wooden furniture in the first, the sort that could be found anywhere for a low price.

 _This wasn't a home._ He didn't see anything worthwhile where he was. _Probably lived somewhere lower and kept this as a forward base closer to the front. Maybe a bit of storage if I'm lucky._

It hadn't been uncommon. Kirito himself owned several little houses on several floors throughout Aincrad. Each had enough supplies to feed and rearm him, but none had anything worth more than what he carried. Then again, what he carried was worth a substantial amount.

He skipped the kitchen. Any food would have expired and de-rezzed long ago, gauging by the amount of dust accumulated on every open surface. With only one room left, Kirito stepped into the bedroom. It was small, with most of the space taken up by the queen sized bed. The dresser against the wall to his right only contained clothes that were the wrong size in one drawer and the wrong gender in the other. Neither were anything more than sets of common clothes. The closet had a pair of long swords leaning against the back wall.

Kirito picked one up to appraise it, first visually, then with his menu. _Nothing special._

Didn't matter. He was just going to sell them either way. After a few more minutes checking the room he sat down on the bed, letting his eyes wander to the picture on the bedside table he'd been avoiding. It showed a smiling couple sitting together, leaned back against the thick trunk of a tree. The picture had been taken at arm's length by what he presumed to be the husband or boyfriend. Kirito's right hand wandered to his left, fidgeting with his ring.

 _I should visit her sometime soon._ He looked down at the metal band around his finger. It had been a while now since he'd stopped by his home or seen her. He made up his mind. _Once I unlock the next town._

From Syldren, he believed the next little town was about a day's ride away. If he was headed in the right direction, he could either be there some time tonight or tomorrow morning.

 _Might as well get moving._ He braced his hands on his knees and stood up, moving to make it so.

Yonaka had dozed off next to his horse, but woke up the instant she heard him approaching. She stretched out and took to her feet, awaiting further orders. Kirito untied his horse and pulled himself up into the saddle, and gave the simple command.

"Yonaka: follow."

He pulled on the reigns to turn his horse in the desired direction. "C'mon, Horse. Let's go."

Kirito had never been able to figure out a good name for the horse, so Horse is what he called it. With Yonaka it had been easy, matching her name to the colour of her coat. Horse was a flat dark brown stallion with a black mane and tail, and he was at a loss for what a good name for a horse might be. Once he'd settled on simply calling it 'Horse', he'd stopped trying for anything better.

The sturdy animal took him out of Syldren at a slow trot, heading west. He believed he would find the next town, Yuleden this way. The various clearing groups had already been this way a long time ago, but unless Kirito could find one of their members and trade for their map data, he was stuck blazing the trails on his own. He could purchase some limited topographical map data from some NPC vendors, as well as get some hints from the more talkative ones. From here he could theorize on where settlements might be.

He had it on relatively solid intel that he was headed in the right direction to ride straight to Yuleden. After that, he'd have to search for the final town from there, and the boss labyrinth if he chose to. It looked like he at least had an easy ride ahead of him. Flat grassy fields stretched out in all directions. He could see some woods far off to his right, but other than that the only things in view were the occasional lonely bush or tree. The only mobs he saw were comfortably out of their agro range or were non-hostile varieties. The trip to find Syldren had likewise been as clear.

He frowned. A floor this easy to traverse was usually after a hard level, or before it. The one beneath had not been particularly hard to chart either. Kirito wasn't looking forward to moving up to the next floor. He put it out of his mind, no point in worrying about it now.

The hours bled together, the sun slowly rising from his right and passing above him to start its descent to his left as his horse plodded north. Kirito tried to keep alert, but one could only stare at the horizon for so long. Confident that his cat could keep a good enough eye out, he let his mind wander.

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"Hey, buddy." Klein called from the trap door he'd just opened, poking his head out. "What're you doin' up here?"

Kirito stood on the top of the Skysplitter Spire, hands resting on the railing. It was one of the tallest structures in Aincrad. The base was a three storey complex at the center of the first town on the fiftieth floor. From there, it rose in a diamond shaped column with the sharper edge facing the wind. The bottom of the spire was a little more than fifteen meters wide and twenty long, but tapered down as it went up. At a hundred fifty meters tall it ended at a flat top measuring eight meters wide and twelve long. The entire Skysplitter Spire was constructed of bright marble.

Up here, the only things were the flat top of the structure and a waist high fence. At the center of the platform was a smaller scale version of the spire, just wide enough to lean against and reaching another few meters up. There was only one way to get up here: up a single iron ladder that ran up the inside of the monument to the hatch Klein was pulling himself out of. There were two ways down. At this height, not even the safe zone would save someone from that much fall damage.

It had taken a long time for the fiftieth floor to be unlocked. People had died fighting tooth and nail to get this far, and this floor was only half way. Here they found the spire, useless apart from one purpose some less hopeful players had given it.

"Kirito." Klein said more forcefully when his friend made no reply. "C'mon man, talk to me."

"What do you want, Klein?" Kirito asked without looking. "You come all the way from the front lines to check on me again?"

"Well," Klein started taking hesitant steps towards him, "when one of your best buddies heads up to the Suicide Spire, it seems about the right time."

"Still watching me on your map." It was phrased like a question but spoken as a statement.

"I'm just looking out for yah." Klein kept advancing. "It's what friends do, right?"

A gust of wind blew past them, forcing Klein to stop, rooting his stance to keep from being knocked over.

Kirito faced the wind, unmoved. "We've both been up here before."

"Yeah, I know." The red headed samurai held a hand to his face to block the wind. "But that was…that was before."

"It's a beautiful view." Kirito said flatly, trying to change the topic.

"It is." Klein agreed. "But how about you take a few steps back, okay?"

"Why?" Kirito asked. He still hadn't faced his friend. He couldn't bring himself to.

"Because," the wind passed, and Klein resumed his advance with more urgency, "you're on the wrong side of the rail."

"Leave me alone, Klein." Kirito said, adjusting his grip on the railing.

"Can't do that, buddy." He persisted. "You know why? 'Cause you're not alone. Not as long as I'm here, and I'm sure as shit not goin' anywhere."

Before Kirito could say or do anything, he felt Klein roughly grab him by the scruff of the neck. With more strength than he expected, Kirito was pulled back over the railing and dropped onto his back.

Klein looked down at him with might have been disappointment, concern, anger or all three combined. He dropped to one knee and took hold of Kirito's chin, forcing him to meet his eyes. "Now, wake up!"

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Kirito jerked with a start. He was back on his horse. The sun had begun to drop below the horizon, and the stars had started to appear. Horse had continued on without his input. He ran a hand through his hair with a sigh, and started to repeat the motion, only to stop with his face resting in his open palm.

 _Dammit._ He cursed himself. _Why that of all dreams?_

He owed a lot to that man. Klein was stubborn to a fault, and refused to ever give up on anyone or anything he thought was worth his time. Kirito had never seen someone stand his ground so many times and refuse to let anything move him as many times as him, and he was tough enough to weather anything that tried. He could be a bit dense, but once he called you his friend he would stick with you through thick and thin. Kirito couldn't have ever asked for a better brother, let alone a best friend.

Kirito sighed again into his palm, then pulled himself back to the present. He checked his map, finding that his horse had at least kept to their plotted course. He searched around, and he could see in the distance what looked like lights. Kirito summoned a set of binoculars and confirmed that he'd found the town. It was so small calling it a town might have been a tad generous. From this distance, he was only about an hour more away. He signaled his horse to resume its trek, and with a huff it complied.

Alert and awake again, he raised the binoculars again and started performing a more complete inspection of his surroundings. The topography hadn't changed in the slightest, looking completely indistinct from when he'd left Syldren. There were no points of interest in the immediate area, save for what might have been ruins to his left, probably for a quest. Behind him he saw that he'd passed by a copse of trees, and to his right he could still see the same woods from before. Peering ahead, he noticed one other landmark.

There was a foothill between him and the town with a two storey house on it. From his perspective and distance he had originally thought it was a larger building inside the town, but now that he was closer he could see it was well outside the settlement. It was maybe half a kilometer from Yuleden, which was small enough to be little more than an outpost. He slowed his horse, trying to get a better look at the house. It wasn't unheard of for some people to make their homes outside of a town, but not in the middle of nowhere, and not after Laughing Coffin started making their presence known.

Riding on his still moving horse, it was hard to keep his binoculars steady, but something looked wrong about the place. He could tell that he was coming up to the house from behind, seeing a small back porch with a chair and a wooden railing. From his angle he could make out a larger porch facing Yuleden. The problem was that the chair was on its side, and a portion of the railing was broken outwards.

Kirito stopped his horse a safe distance from the home and dismounted. The hole in the railing was about the right size to suggest a body had been thrown into it, and the window besides the open door was broken outwards. On instinct, Kirito dropped into a crouch and crept forward.

"Yonaka: guard Horse." He commanded in a quiet tone.

There was one other open window on the second storey, but he couldn't see anything moving inside. He ascended the steps to the porch, giving the scene a closer examination. Slash marks were gouged into a couple spots in the area near the door, which hung open, but was itself undamaged. A deeper mark like a stab from a spear was to the left of the door frame.

 _Uninvited company._ Kirito concluded. _Looks like someone came out to meet them._

He glanced at the broken railing. _First one went down there. Whoever lived here must have had a kick like a mule._

Kirito stepped into the house, seeing that the fight had pressed inside. The back room was so ruined that he couldn't tell what it had been used for. The passing breeze had then mixed the debris for who knew how long. Splinters of wood and pieces of glass crunched underfoot. An inspection of the next room revealed bare shelves, announcing the winner of the fight in favour of the invaders.

 _Place looks like it's been picked clean._ He thought, looking around anyways.

With the sun now fully below the horizon it was too dark to easily see within the house. Kirito opened his menu, summoning a fist sized spherical orange rock, translucent like amber. He gripped it tight in his hand and it softly cracked. The little sphere then started issuing a gentle orange light. Kirito held the glowstone aloft in his offhand like a torch. The item was like the fantasy version of a glow stick, and provided only a little more light.

The next few minutes were spent confirming his assessment of the home. Every room on the bottom floor had been stripped of anything worth anything. It was clear the place had been raided by multiple attackers. It didn't appear that this was a recent event. To the left of the front door was the stair case to the second storey. There was evidence of another fight here, probably as someone had come down and met the attackers here. Dents and gouges in the walls told of a one sided fight as the defender was pushed back until the signs of the struggle ended halfway up.

With a sigh, he ascended the steps to the second storey. There was what had been armoury, empty of everything save for the weapon racks. The only other room had a few words carved into the door, surrounded by an open casket.

 _The Coffin welcomes all in time._

Kirito frowned at the confirmation of who had done this. He pushed the door open to the bedroom. In the wall to the right was a square shaped hole, and a painting on the floor in front of it. The people that had raided the house had apparently found a safe in the most obvious place it could be, but couldn't open it. It had been broken out of the wall to open later. The bedroom was at the back of the house, with the open window facing where he'd come from. It had a nice view. He could see his horse and panther, waiting for him to return.

Kirito furrowed his brow. His horse was relaxed, but Yonaka looked alert, staring back at him. It took him a moment to realize that his panther wasn't looking at him, but the floor below him. The curtains softly rustled as they caught the breeze, and the bedroom door closed behind him. Kirito jumped at the sudden sound, turning to see more had been carved on the inside of the door.

 _And to you reading this, know your time draws ever closer._

Unsettled, Kirito decided it was time to leave. At a brisk pace he descended the stairs, eager to be out of the house. He turned down the hall leading to the back door and froze. The back door was open. Kirito instantly shot his hand up and drew Elucidator, adrenaline suddenly flowing through him.

The shadows thrown by his glow stick started to take on a more threatening aura. Anyone could be hiding there. His eyes darted back and forth, but nothing he could see gazed back.

 _I closed the door._ He thought. _Didn't I?_

He ducked back into the stairwell, straining his ears to hear anything he could. In the span of a second the home had transformed from a tomb to enemy territory. He couldn't see anything through the front windows save for the open plain between here and Yuleden. He could feel his breathing quicken. The bedroom door upstairs blew shut again, causing him to jerk.

 _You must have left it open._ He assured himself, trying to remember. _Did I?_

After an internal count to three, Kirito threw his glowstone to the side as a distraction, causing the room to appear to tumble for the shifting shadows. He bolted from the stairwell, running through the hall and out the back door. Once he was a dozen meters from the back porch he spun, drawing his second sword and took a ready fighting stance.

Nothing challenged him.

His eyes jerked from the door, to one window, to the other, then back to the door to repeat the process. Kirito started backing away, towards his horse and cat. He glanced behind him, and to the sides, still finding no threat. Yonaka sensed the shift in her master's demeaned and took a more threatening stance, growling at the house.

With one motion, Kirito sheathed both swords, then quickly mounted his ride and urged it towards Yuleden. Horse complied by breaking into a full gallop, Yonaka trailing after. The entire short trip he kept checking behind them, but nothing followed. Still, he couldn't shake the sense of impending danger clinging to his heart. He needed to get away from that house, from this floor. Horse took him through the open gates of Yuleden without slowing. If there had been any players or NPCs in the street they might have complained.

When they reached the outpost's lone teleporter, Kirito pulled on the reigns, slowing the horse enough to jump down while it was still at a trot. Yonaka had kept pace without any trouble, but looked as confused as a cat could over the events of the last few minutes. With long strides, Kirito stepped up to the gateway and pressed his palm into the arch, unlocking it.

He opened the interface and keyed in Mytrix. He gave one last look behind him for pursuit and stepped through. Without stopping for a beat he opened the interface again and selected another floor. He paused to think a moment, coming to a conclusion. Kirito had just been thinking of stopping by his home, and he'd met his latest objective. The destination set, Kirito entered the vortex of the portal, warping down from the eighty third floor to the twenty second. One more jump and he was taking form in the town of Bristol.

The twenty second floor had always been pretty peaceful, and just being here made him feel at ease. Having evaded the danger, real or otherwise, Kirito allowed himself to calm down. Bristol was a picturesque village on the edge of a good sized lake. A thick but navigable forest ran around both the village and most of the lake. Most of the buildings were either log cabins or longhouses made in much the same manner.

Due to the few mobs and zero field bosses there were on this floor, it had been passed up pretty quickly by those that like to live close to the front, but he and Asuna had found the location perfect to call home. Bristol was serene, and more importantly, safe. After a minute spent watching the portal for anyone that might appear after him, he set off towards the place he'd been living for almost two years.

Kirito paused, then made a quick diversion to gather some flowers. It had been a while since he'd seen Asuna; better bring some flowers. He collected a good handful of a flower that appeared to be a cross breed of tulips and daisies, native only to SAO and an early two thousands American film that Kirito had never heard of. There were always a favourite of hers. Despite the game listing them as soltrus flowers, she'd insisted on calling them 'todaysies'. With no further distraction, he made his way to the log cabin where he felt most secure.

The door unlocked and opened to him, and he stepped into the cozy comfort of the welcoming safety of his home base. Kirito owned several properties throughout Aincrad, positions to fall back to, or supply houses, but this was the one place he would come to relax. He might sleep elsewhere, but this is where he lived.

Kirito breathed in deep, letting it out slow and steady. "I'm home."

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Author's Notes: A bit more information into Kirito, the world of Aincrad and the state that both are in.


	3. Divergence

_Kirito lay sprawled out on the ground, flat on his back with his head propped up against the raised chunk of earth he'd been sitting on less than a minute ago. His mind screamed at his body to rise, but it ignored his pleas. All he could move was his head, and if things didn't improve quickly he was about to lose it. In retrospect he should have packed his own lunch._

 _His grinning attacker, the man who'd poisoned the party's drinks with a paralytic agent and just murdered Godfrey moments ago casually strolled towards him, raising his sword and cutting his monologue short._

 _"Time to finish you off for good." Kuradeel declared, stabbing his weapon down into Kirito's wrist, drawing a pained gasp from his prone and paralyzed prey._

 _Kuradeel dug the blade in, driving it deeper, prying it back and forth. He was clearly relishing his chance for revenge. No doubt he'd been stewing and waiting for this ever since Kirito had beaten him in their first duel._

The poison's not wearing off! _He shouted internally._

 _The sword was plucked from his arm and driven down again, stabbing into his thigh._

 _"How's it feel?" Kuradeel chortled with glee as he continued to grind the sword into his leg. "C'mon, I want to know how it feels knowing you're about to die."_

 _When Kirito made no reply, Kuradeel smirked. "What, is your tongue paralyzed, too?"_

 _His health bar issued a warning chime as it flashed, entering the yellow, steadily decreasing._

Is this it? _He thought, images of lost friends flashing through his mind, as if they were bidding him to join them. It was a tempting offer, not that his present situation gave him much of a choice in the matter._ Is today the day?

 _Paralyzed at the bottom of a canyon at the end of a madman's sword was hardly the most appealing way to go._

 _"You really are going to die." Kuradeel punctuated his declaration by pulling his sword from his trapped quarry, raising it up high. "Better to just accept it. You're as good as dead, already."_

 _Kirito was vaguely aware in the back of his mind that those words were not quite right, but his line of thought was interrupted when the sword was finally stabbed down into his chest, impaling him. He could only stare up at Kuradeel's grinning, laughing visage as his health entered the red with another, harsher chime._

 _Despite how much he wished it were otherwise, he could hardly argue with the man's valid point. Still, Kirito refused to let something as pathetic as this be the end of him. Mustering all the strength he had, he grasped the sword that was buried in his chest with one hand and tried to force it away._

 _Kuradeel simply found this amusing. Hard as Kirito was trying, he could easily overpower him._

 _"Why do you keep struggling?" Kuradeel asked, his face twisting in a mocking grin. "Are you still afraid of dying?"_

 _"No." Kirito answered honestly. On his own terms he might welcome it. "I'm just not ready yet."_

 _"Few people ever are." Kuradeel commented, again breaking from the script._

 _At that moment there was a rush of wind as a feminine figure arrived in a lightning flash. His savior collided with Kuradeel, throwing him off in a surprising show of force, knocking him into the canyon wall over ten meters away._

 _He'd been saved just as his health had been about to empty. Kirito focused his weakened, reddened vision on the woman who'd swooped in to rescue him. Her worried expression was the most wonderful sight he could imagine._

 _"Hey, beautiful." He said weakly, managing a shallow, lopsided smile._

 _Asuna knelt to his side, holding out a high grade healing crystal. Her mouth opened to utter the needed word to activate it, but instead gave another command._

 _"Wake up."_

The world was torn sideways, leaving him a black void. He tried to move, finding his limbs no longer paralyzed, but physically constrained. His right arm was pinned in place, with a weight resting near his elbow, cutting off the blood flow and causing the lower half of his arm to have gone numb. The blackness started to take on a red-ish tint as light filtered in through his closed eyes.

Kirito resisted the urge to stretch as he woke; he wasn't alone. The warm mass beside him was still breathing softly, tucked into her own dreams. He opened his eyes, taking in his surroundings. He was, of course, in his bedroom. Their bedroom. To his left was the door, in front of him was the window, thankfully shuttered. To his right was the dresser with a mirror near the foot of the bed, and the closet closer to the head. Next to him was the woman he loved. Kirito smiled as he looked over to the head of chestnut hair that was resting on his right arm. She was sleeping on her side, facing away, and though she would never admit it, was snoring faintly.

His arm felt like it had gone dead and was about to fall off, but he didn't want to wake her. He couldn't help but give a quiet chuckle as one of her little snores caught in her throat and turned into a more guttural utterance. The struggle not to disturb her became moot as she stirred, roused either by his laugh or by her own doing.

"Morning." He said with a smile that grew even wider as she rolled over to face him.

"Morning." She replied, planting a soft kiss and touching her forehead to his.

 _I could stay like this forever._ He thought. _Why do I ever leave?_

She pulled away from him, rolling back over to the edge of the bed and removing herself from the covers. Kirito opted to stay put another moment longer, moving to put his hands behind his head under the pillow. Only one obeyed the order, with his still dead right arm sliding along the bedsheets, but otherwise not moving. From the elbow down it had taken on a blood deprived blue colour.

He sat up, trying to massage feeling back into the appendage. "When did you get here?"

"Last night." Asuna answered. Much to Kirito's chagrin, she opened her menu to equip her standard day clothes over her under garments. "After you PMed me that you were home."

Kirito swung his feet out over his edge of the bed, finally stretching himself out. Tingling pins and needles crept up and down his arm. The covers were folded off of him, leaving him in his undershorts.

"I was worried I might wake you, but you were out cold." She continued, tying her hair in her signature braids in front of the dresser mirror. "You should sleep more. It's not healthy to always stay up as long as you do."

Kirito stood up, walked around the bed and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly from behind. "I've missed you."

In the mirror's reflection he thought he saw her smile falter for fraction of a second. She turned to face him, everything back in place. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving. Breakfast?"

He nodded, allowing the change in subject. "Sounds good."

She started to pull away, and he had to resist the urge to hold her tighter. Once free of his grasp Kirito was left alone in their room as she headed to the kitchen down the hall. He quickly dressed, following after her once he was done. He could already smell the aroma of food wafting his way.

As expected, it was a delicious meal. Asuna had maxed out her cooking skill back before they'd even started dating, and he could think of few peers she might have when it came to this field. Their home had a fairly modern kitchen, somewhat anachronistic to most of Aincrad. They'd invested a lot of money making their home that way. While they were here, it almost felt like they were back in reality. They wanted their house to not feel like it was another part of the game. They wanted it to feel like home.

Much of the meal was spent in chit chat, catching up. Asuna mostly telling him about the happenings in her guild and their progress upwards. Kirito didn't have much to say himself, and just listened. After traveling alone as long as he had, just listening to another voice was a welcome change, no matter what they were talking about. Suffice to say this was something he would never admit to. He was just putting the plates in the sink when he put forth a question.

"Is it okay for you to come down here from the front line?" He asked.

"I'm second in command of the Knights of the Blood Oath." She laughed. "Unless Heathcliff himself says something, I can do pretty much whatever I want. Besides, I think they can last a day or so without me holding their hands."

Kirito held back a frown at the mention of that name. He'd never liked Heathcliff. Something about the man always raised his hackles. He was just too calm and collected, even in battle, as if every fight he was in occurred only because he allowed it to.

"So," She spoke again, snapping him out of his thoughts, "did you have any plans for the day, or did you want to take it easy and lounge around here?"

"As long as it's with you, I'm happy with whatever." Kirito replied.

"My God, that's sappy." She placed a hand over her mouth while she gave a light laugh in embarrassment on his behalf and opened her menu. "You want to see what the others are doing? Maybe we can ping Klein or drop by Lisbeth's."

" _No_." He almost shouted, with more urgency than he'd intended. A lot had happened with those two, and he didn't want to dwell on it now. "How about we just stay here for a bit, just the two of us."

"Okay." Her menu was dismissed with a wave, not acknowledging the outburst in the slightest. "Just the two of us."

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They were in the backyard, lying on the soft grass and looking up at the sky. She was nestled up to his right side, over top his arm. The two of them were at the edge of the shade provided by the large oak tree behind their house. The sky was a lovely shade of blue, with scattered, fluffy clouds drifting lazily by. A beautiful day by any definition.

"That one looks kinda like a cat." She pointed to a cloud that looked to be nothing of the sort.

Kirito was too lost in thought to comment. This did not escape her notice. "What's wrong?"

"I was thinking about this house I found yesterday." He didn't want to talk about it, but as a solo player he rarely had anyone to talk to. He found the words pouring from his mouth unbidden, venting. "House like ours, outside a safe zone. Laughing Coffin had cleared it out."

He chided himself internally. This was a happy place, and a happy moment. The fingers on his right hand twitched, losing sensation as Asuna's weight once again cut off his circulation. The shade under the tree grew momentarily darker as a cloud passed by overhead.

"That's awful." She commented with a sympathetic frown. "Be safe out there. I know you're all by yourself, but promise you'll be safe."

"I just wish I could have done something." He admitted. "Could've prevented it."

It should have been senseless to blame himself for such a thing, but he couldn't help acknowledge that this could have been avoided if he had been able to stop it. Part of the fault lie with him. The cloud that had been blotting out the sun drifted past, but the shadows didn't lessen and the light didn't return.

She sat up, looking down at him with sympathy. "You can't keep doing this to yourself."

In the distance, black storm clouds approached from the horizon.

"I should just stay with you." He suggested. She was off of him, but the sensation of numbness only grew heavier on his arm.

"Kirito," She took on a pained expression, "don't do this."

He propped himself up on his elbows, about to sit up when she placed a hand on his chest, stopping him.

"It's time to go." She stated mournfully.

"No," he refused, "no, I want to stay."

"You know you can't." He tried again to sit up, but her hand held him fast like stone. "Not today."

Her pleading eyes bored down into his. "Promise me, not today."

Tears started to well up in his eyes, but he said nothing in reply. He stopped struggling. He knew it was futile at this point. The pattering sound of heavy raindrops surrounded them but there was no rain in sight to cause it.

"Kirito," her gaze didn't waver, "promise me."

He was just shy of weeping, but couldn't refuse. "I promise."

She managed a slim, forlorn smile. "Then get up."

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Kirito opened his eyes. He was in his bedroom, in his bed. He was lying on his stomach, alone. His right arm dangled over the side of the bed, with the edge of the mattress digging into the inside of his elbow, cutting off the blood flow. He lifted his head from the dampened pillow to look about the room. To the right was the door, to the left was his short dresser underneath the window, and there was no closet. The dull sound of thunder briefly joined the beating of heavy rainfall descending upon his roof.

He'd slept in his clothes again. His menu was waved open and a fresh set of identical garments were applied. His eyes wandered to the side of the two drawer dresser, where his swords and knife harness had spent the night. As he reattached them to his body he stared down at the vase of flowers on top of the dresser. With a deep sigh he picked it up and carried it out of the room. He'd slept in; it was nearly noon.

His cat was in the common room, staring out the front window into the rain, paws resting on the sill. Kirito didn't bother to give the panther any command to stay put. True to her simulated feline instincts, she hated getting wet unless she had to, and wouldn't follow him into the deluge unless commanded to. Possibly not even then.

Vase of flowers in hand, he pushed open his front door and stepped out in the ongoing downpour. He made no effort to keep himself dry and was soaked to his core by the time he'd reached the street. If anything, the weather was appropriate. With resigned purpose Kirito strode through the town of Bristol. His path took him out though the town gates, along the coast of the lake it sat beside. Winding along through the nearby trees was a trail made from wood planks. It used to be a pleasant walk when it had been with company.

His destination wasn't far, and he was soon walking up to a familiar cabin. It was the same as it ever was, in reality or in his dreams. Kirito didn't enter, instead heading around the side to the back yard. He couldn't bear to be inside the house any more.

Kirito stopped near the oak tree about ten meters from the back of the house. For a moment he stood there, staring at his reason for coming here. It was unbearable to look at for too long, and he had to dip his head and turn his gaze to the ground. His voice croaked when he spoke. "Hey."

No response. Small blessing.

He cleared his throat. "I brought you some flowers. Your favourite."

Kirito held them up. "Todaysies."

He'd never been good at this, despite how long he'd had to practice. He should be used to it by now, but the wound never stopped feeling fresh. Kirito knelt down, placing the flowers at the gravestone beside the base of the tree bearing the name 'Asuna'. There hadn't been anything to bury, seeing how SAO left no bodies, but he wanted to have something more personal that a line through her name on the Monument of Life. That, and the massive slab had too many names of friends long dead. Better to mourn them one at a time to keep from being overwhelmed.

A hand was placed on top of the stone marker. "I promise."

He stood back up, looking down at it, at once rooted in place, wanting to be as close to her as he could, even if he knew nothing was here, and likewise wanting to be anywhere but here, at this time or place. Kirito wanted to say something else, but no words came. At least, not the ones he wanted.

"I'm sorry."

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 _The clash of steel on steel filled the arena with a series of rapid, continuous reports. Each strike flowing into the next as the Black Swordsman pressed the attack, a constant blur. His opponent, a larger than average man wielding a unique set of tower shield and one handed straight sword ironically dubbed Liberator held his ground. As fast as the boy could attack, he couldn't get around the shield._

 _Surrounding the duelists were the paralyzed bodies of the rest of the players that had come here. They'd just defeated the Skull Reaper, the boss of the seventy fifth floor when events had spiraled into what was now transpiring. Kirito, dueling Heathcliff, or rather Kayaba, for the chance to prematurely end the game and free everyone from the prison that was Aincrad._

 _Despite turning off his status as an immortal object and disabling the system tools that had aided him in his initial duel with Kirito on more amicable terms months ago, Kayaba was proving to be an impossible foe to hit. It was becoming clear that his previous immortal status was born from caution, not necessity. No matter how quickly Kirito moved, or how quickly he struck, Kayaba's shield was always there to catch it, allowing him to counter attack almost at his leisure._

Faster! _He spurred himself on._

 _Kirito thought he saw an opening and moved to exploit it. His Dark Repulsor glowed with a vibrant blue as he thrust it forward, fully committing to the attack. Once this landed, he could sense this would be the beginning of the turning of the tide._

 _Kayaba brought his shield to bear, intercepting the stab directly at its center, and with a sharp snap, Kirito's sword broke. The boy's eyes widened. What might have been the finest sword in all of Aincrad has just given out on him. Overcommitted to the thrust, perhaps by Kayaba's design, he was entirely open for his counter strike. Kayaba's sword shone a searing red as it was raised high and brought down in a simple wrath cut, the Liberator moving to enforce their imprisonment._

 _Kirito watched it come, knowing there was no way he could dodge it. Time seemed to slow as the blade inexorably descended towards him. This was his end, and he knew it. Before the blow could land, a shadow passed over him. His eyes widened even further as he realized what was happening. Asuna, somehow overcoming her paralysis, had managed to exhaust her strength in one lunge that placed herself between Kirito and the blade slashing down to reap him._

No! _It was the one way things could possibly get worse._

 _The blow struck, cutting fast and deep through her. He dropped his swords, the duel instantly forgotten as he caught her. In horror, he watched her life bar quickly empty. She said something to him, lying limp in his arms, but he couldn't hear, his mind refusing to accept what was happening. As if on autopilot, he said something in return, but his own words failed to reach his ears. He kept rejecting what was about to transpire even as her body started to glow._

Please no! _He would beg aloud if he'd had the time._

 _She shattered, exploding into a cloud of crystalline blue shards. He was aware of reaching for them, then dropping to his hands and knees and doubling over. In a sense, it felt as though Kayaba had killed not one but two people in one blow._

 _"Now, that was a surprise." Kayaba stated in an amused and sickeningly casual tone. "I'm sure I never programmed a way for players to neutralize their own paralysis. I guess sometimes these things just happen."_

 _Kirito clenched his fists. His mind had gone numb as he felt a void form in the pit of his being that he sensed would never heal. He reached for Asuna's fallen rapier, weakly pulling himself to his feet. Kayaba, for his part, looked as though this fight was already over. He didn't even bother to block Kirito's limp strikes, simply taking half steps back, leaving Kayaba just out of reach, much like their freedom. On the third attempt his Liberator was quickly swept up, knocking Kirito's weapon free of his grip._

Just end it. _Kirito thought, looking his opponent in the eyes for what he felt would be the last time._

 _Kayaba brought his sword back, held it point straight out and thrust it at Kirito's chest. The boy closed his eyes for what was to come, but felt nothing. After a long moment, he opened them again, looking down to see that the tip of the sword had stopped just short of landing. He looked back up at Kayaba with confusion._

 _"No," The man sounded entirely disappointed, "that's enough I think."_

 _"What." Kirito croaked._

 _"I've already won." Kayaba explained, sheathing his sword in his shield and planting the bottom tip of the latter in the floor. "Why kill what's already broken? That's hardly sporting."_

 _Kirito dropped to his knees, the tears he could no longer contain streaming down his face._

 _"I'm not going to lie: this has been something of a letdown. To kill you here and now would just be so…_ anticlimactic _. So long as I leave you alive, our game can continue. Perhaps we'll meet again sometime. I would enjoy a rematch once you're up to it." Kayaba bent at the waist and tilted his head, as if he were incapable of comprehending or caring for what his opponent was going through. "Perhaps we won't."_

 _The former leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath, the leader of the struggle to end the game and their own personal Judas spun dramatically towards the arena exit and started towards it, taking long, lively steps. "Either way, I'll be waiting on the hundredth floor for whoever can get to me, as originally planned."_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I'm sorry." Kirito repeated to the gravestone. "I'm sorry…I couldn't save you."

When Asuna had died, a part of him had died with her. The Knights of the Blood Oath never truly recovered from Kayaba's betrayal. The clearing groups had scattered and reformed multiple times before someone else had finally managed to take the reins. It was in this chaotic disorder that the worst of people always flourished.

The fracturing of the clearing groups, the expansion of Laughing Coffin, the death of his beloved, and all those that had fallen after, all because he couldn't kill Kayaba when he had the chance. He placed his hand on the grave marker, longing for her warm embrace and finding nothing but the coldness of stone.

The rain intensified, pelting the area around him. Even under the cover of the tree, the rain poured through. In the loud din of the torrential downpour, the rustling of the tree almost sounded like whispers.

"Failure." Came a voice that was not his own. It was almost too quiet to hear.

A second voice repeated the declaration, followed by a third and a fourth, gradually rising in volume. They whispered all at once, at the same time too low to properly understand yet speaking over each other. He clenched his eyes shut and scratched impulsively at the itch on the back of his head he couldn't reach as more voices joined in while the breeze strengthened and the tree branches swayed. He couldn't make out their words but he could recognize their voices. When the seventh joined, they spoke as one, producing a harsh chorus that was finally loud enough and distinct for Kirito to understand them.

 _"Failed her."_

This was the more potent accusation, and one he couldn't refute. He lightly but sternly tapped the base of his palm against his forehead, screwing his eyes shut tight. Kirito bit his lip but said nothing. Acknowledging them would only make it worse.

He was suddenly aware that the sounds of rainfall had ceased. The voices paused, then continued, fading back in. They were no longer speaking to him, but each other, and unlike before he could sense the direction they were in. More joined in, all behind him in quiet murmurs.

When he opened his eyes, Kirito was no longer in his old backyard. Around him was the Room of Resurrection, in the Starting City on the first floor. It was a massive room, built much like the main chamber of a cathedral, with stone pillars lining the walls to the left and right and blue stained glass windows high above. The floor and the bottom five meters of the walls were made from dark grey stone, with the former polished to a mirror sheen. Above, the rest of the walls and arched ceiling was made of various coloured stone tiles a handspan across, with a light tan being the most prevalent.

His hand was no longer resting on the headstone of Asuna's grave, but was instead pressed against the face of the Monument of Life. The giant slab of onyx black stone, named as cruelly as the room that contained it sat a few steps above the floor on a raised dais. Fourteen other people had died in the fight against the Skull Reaper. Kirito would have to admit that despite having fought alongside them, he couldn't recall any of their names. It didn't really matter, only one name on the slab held his attention at the moment.

He heard the main doors to the cathedral open and shut as a couple more mourners excused themselves. It had been a well put together funeral, with all of Asuna's friends in attendance, as well as several members of the Knights of the Blood Oath stopping by to pay their respects for their fallen second in command and comrade, whether they knew her personally or not.

For some time a long list of people had taken a spot in front of the monument to say a few words, but Kirito hadn't been able to focus on any of them. He could only stare at the stone slab, as if lost in a haze. Before he'd known it the service had ended and people were wishing him well or expressing their sympathies, excusing themselves after a long awkward moment when he could only give a vacant nod in reply. The entire time he couldn't even bring himself to cry.

That had been over an hour ago, maybe two. While everyone was sharing stories of times spent with her, Kirito split from the crowd and approached the slab, finding Asuna's crossed out name and placing his hand against it. This was the closest the two would ever be again.

He didn't react to the footsteps approaching from behind until he felt a hand placed on his shoulder. Kirito turned to face his best friend, seeing that the only other people that hadn't left were his guild members. Come to think of it he didn't know any of their names, either.

"You gonna be okay?" Klein asked, concerned.

He was dressed in an appropriate black suit to match the occasion, though all Kirito could think was that this might be the first time he'd seen Klein wearing something other than his normal samurai themed armour. Kirito wasn't sure if this was a testament to how much he wore it, or to how little he actually saw his friend outside of combat or quests.

Kirito nodded in the affirmative, although it was clear that wasn't true.

"Listen, I've gotta get going." Klein said softly, as though his voice make break something otherwise. "The service for Brennert starts soon and I need to make sure his wife's alright."

 _That's right._ Kirito vaguely remembered hearing that name in an after battle report. _He was one of the fourteen._

"I know you've probably heard this too many times too count today," Klein gave his friend's shoulder a reassuring grip, "but if you need anything, anything at all, just send me a message, okay?"

As a matter of fact, he _had_ heard that empty platitude from far too many people over the course of the last three days, since the duel with Kayaba, but it was the first time he believed it.

Kirito nodded again, and his friend gave him one last pat before lifting his hand and stepping away from him and the monument. Not long after, he and he party were gone, leaving him alone with the stone slab. Perhaps it was better that way. Perhaps the aching in his chest was because he'd forgotten this. He took a step back, staring at the monument, looking over its face. There were more names without a line crossing it out than there were with it, but there were enough to make it easy to find them without trying. Kirito took another step back, then another, watching Asuna's name grow smaller and less distinct. Another few steps and it was hard to make out the letters among the other names or through the tears welling in his eyes.

All it took was a little distance and she was just another forgettable name amongst ten thousand. A footnote nobody would see unless they sought it out on purpose, whose sacrifice would be forgotten once anyone had something else to occupy their attention. This was something he could not accept. He quickly advanced on it again, sick of the monument's mockery of what he had lost. His fist glowed as he thrust a fury driven punch into the face of the stone. When nothing happened he did it again, the jolt knocking the tears from his eyes.

A buzzing tone announced a floating purple panel bearing the words 'Immortal Object'. This only made him angrier, punching it again and again. He punched it until his breath grew ragged, until his fingers broke, until the bones ground against each other. After an amount of time he couldn't count he gave one final, exhausted punch that sounded wet and fleshy, and the panel appeared again. Its message was clear; the monument was invulnerable, unlike the people whose names it bore, and it would be here long after they were gone.

He sank down to his knees to catch his breath.

Kirito wiped the sleeve of his right arm against his forehead to sponge off some of the sweat that had built up there. In doing so, he smudged the caked dirt that had accumulated there across his face. He looked down at his coat, covered in earth and mud. Kirito was confused about this for a moment before he remembered where he was.

Kirito was in his backyard, five days after the funeral. He wiped his other, cleaner sleeve across his face and took hold of the shovel. With a bit of effort the spade sunk into the soft earth and dislodged another chunk of dirt. The hole was a rough rectangle about two meters long and about half a meter wide, situated under the oak tree behind his house. It was deep enough he had to stand inside it to keep going.

He heard someone calling his name but ignored it, continuing with his current task with feverish intent. The questioning voice called again, followed by a third time a few moments later. He could hear the sound of boots stepping on grass. He didn't say anything back, he needed to be alone.

"Kirito, you back here?" Klein stopped at the edge of the hole, looking down over his shoulder as he kept digging. "What are you doin'?"

"Busy." Kirito said simply, not stopping. "What is it?"

"Just checking in on you." Klein bent at the knees to crouch down next to one of the mounds of fresh soil surrounding the excavation. "Where yah been, buddy? I stopped by the last few days but haven't see you anywhere."

"Had to get another house. Couldn't sleep here." Kirito answered, speaking in a deadpan staccato. "Every time I closed my eyes I could hear here again."

For the longest moment there was nothing but the sound of the spade biting into the earth, whipping the dirt up over the edge as Kirito didn't cease his work.

"What's the hole for?" Klein asked.

"It's too impersonal." Kirito replied, as though that answered everything.

"What is?" Klein raised an eyebrow, confused.

"The monument." He stopped when the shovel hit a stone with a harsh clink. He pried at it, trying to find its edge. "Too many names. Just a face in the crowd."

"What? I don't underst…" Klein finally recognized the shape of the hole. "Oh."

"It's just a mass grave." Kirito continued, explaining. "She should have one of her own."

He keep prying with the shovel, but the buried rock was larger than he thought and refused to budge. Getting frustrated, Kirito started to stab the spade repeatedly into the ground, quickly growing in speed to no success.

"Hey…hey." Klein started to try and grab his attention again. " _Hey!_ "

Kirito gave one last attempt, producing another grating _clink_. "What?!"

"I think you've dug deep enough." Klein stooped down to one knee and reached out a hand. "C'mon, buddy."

Kirito gave a defeated huff and looked around himself. He hadn't realized the grave was about as deep as he was tall. Klein gave him another concerned look and gestured with his hand. He had to agree that there was no point going any farther. He took hold of the offered hand, about to brace his foot against the side and start climbing when Klein simply stood back up, lifting him straight out with only a slight grunt to betray the effort. Kirito blinked in surprise at his friend's unexpected strength.

He noticed Klein peering curiously off to the left of the grave, where a set of feminine garments were laid out on the ground, well away from the upturned earth. They'd been Asuna's favourite clothes.

"I…I couldn't think of anything else to bury." Kirito explained before he could ask. _He probably thinks I'm crazy._

"Y'know, a grave needs a proper marker." Klein said in an understanding tone. "I know a stonecutter who can put together something nice. How about it?"

Kirito honestly hadn't thought that far ahead. He nodded. "Yeah."

"So," Klein crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow, "how long are you going to stand there?"

"Huh?" He had just gotten up.

With a crack of distant thunder, the world flickered and darkened, thick clouds covering the previous sunny sky. He blinked, and his friend that was just within arm's reach was gone. Kirito took a startled step back, almost forgetting about the open pit behind him, but his feet found solid ground.

He turned around, finding himself back in the present, looking down at Asuna's long filled grave, headstone in place. The caked on dirt was gone from his clothes, and he was again drenched from head to toe. He shook his head, rattling his scattered thoughts in his brain. His stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn't eaten yet today.

 _When did it stop raining?_ He asked himself. A glance at his HUD revealed he'd been here for almost an hour and a half.

Kirito scratched at the back of his head again and quickly strode away from the old grave. He'd had his fill of unpleasant recollections for today. Once there was enough distance between him and his old home to free him from its lingering whispers, Kirito waved open his menu to inspect his current stockpile of quests. The Vasiliás Fídi would respawn by the coming night, and he wanted to take one more shot at it before moving on. Until then he had almost a full day's time to kill.

He quickly headed back to his current house in Bristol to attend to his companions. The scratching of claws against the front door communicated his panther's impatience well enough as he approached it. Once the barrier was open she padded out, pushing her way past him, eager to be out in the open. She gave him a decidedly agitated expression for a cat, before bolting off to seek her belated breakfast. With one down and one to go he headed around to the side of the house where he'd constructed a small stable. It was of a simple design, with outdoor stalls. At most, it was a place to park his mount with a roof to keep it dry. The structure had enough slots for four horses, though it had never seen more than one at a time.

The animal contained inside gave a huff upon seeing him coming, but was otherwise silent as Kirito poured out a generous amount of feed into a tough. Once finished the horse stoically dipped its muzzle down and began to languidly nibble away. Horse was much less emotive that either Yonaka or his predecessor, something Kirito considered to be in its favour.

With both of his followers taken care of, late as it was, he turned his attention to his own hunger, reminded by another rumbling in his gut. Leaving his mount where it was, Kirito strolled into the town proper of Bristol. He walked through the empty settlement towards his favoured restaurant. So long as he was here he might as well eat somewhere nice. Bristol was not a large town, but it was fairly picturesque. Coupled with the low difficulty of the monsters on the floor and easy on the eyes landscapes was the fact that it used to hold some rather high end, NPC run restaurants and inns. It was possible the floor was always intended to serve as a peaceful place for a vacation, or a home away from the hectic fight found most elsewhere.

Arriving at his destination, Kirito pulled open the door to the _Takane Shokuhin_ and stepped inside, instantly making it the busiest place on the floor. There were no other customers inside, human or otherwise. The only other figure present was the NPC owner standing behind the front counter. It was a female just a few centimeters shorter than he was and about a decade older. The NPC, Wanda, had a pleasant face and long blonde hair tied in a pair of braids that reached her shoulder blades. Its head twitched in Kirito's direction as it registered his presence and came out of its idle animation.

He took a seat in the booth on the opposite end of the room, against the outer window and facing the door. His order was placed without need for a menu, and the NPC left the dining room to pass it on to the kitchen. There was no other wait staff. No need to spawn them in for only one player. For how long she was gone, it was apparent that Wanda was filling the role of cook, as well. A few minutes passed and the drone returned with his meal, depositing it in front of him. It was a simple steak with a side of mashed potatoes.

"Enjoy." It said, not quite deadpan but not quite lifelike, with the beginnings of a faint, friendly smile briefly adding a hint of humanity to the still and stoic face.

Not many of them did that anymore. It was one of the reasons he kept coming here. The other was that Asuna never liked this place. She'd never much cared for the food here, though he found it perfectly serviceable. It was somewhere where he could be both close to her and their old home without memories of her haunting him.

That wasn't to say there were none that lingered here. As he was eating, looking down at his plate while he worked at the meat with his utensils, he couldn't help but think back to when he'd shared this table with a friend.

 _He was a significantly larger than average man, standing just a little higher than six feet. He was bald, with a dark brown goatee adorning his chin. His skin was likewise of a darker hue, making him something of a rarity in Aincrad, as far as players went. The man wore armour of an asymmetrical build, with his left arm covered in thick steel, with a large rounded pauldron that extended above his shoulder, while his right arm was bare, revealing a well-developed musculature. His chest bore a hardy looking cuirass. On both his hands were black gloves that ended at the first knuckle of each finger, with slim plates on the back of the hands and fingers of the one on his left._

 _Leaning against the end of the table was his weapon, a two handed labrys battle axe. It usually rested in the loops on his back, but was too large for that while he was sitting in the restaurant booth. Despite them being in town and indoors, he wouldn't put it in his inventory. There were many players that wouldn't go anywhere without a weapon on hand, safe zone or no. Not since the Urbus Event._

 _Agil's arms were crossed over his chest, partially covering the emblem of his new guild: a black painted raven in midflight, wings spread wide and head ducked low, with talons splayed. He wore a serious expression to match the request he'd come here to make. "Well, are you in?"_

 _Kirito had stalled for the past few minutes, but could tell from his friend's face he wouldn't allow any more procrastination. "What you're asking of me…I told you, I don't kill people."_

 _"What I'm asking," Agil's lip twitched downwards in a frown he was trying to suppress, "is for help saving as many as we can."_

 _"By killing." Kirito appended._

 _He could sense the larger man's growing frustration. "If it comes to it, yes."_

 _"You_ know _it will." Kirito persisted on that point._

 _"Hey, I didn't want this either," Agil leaned away, pressing his back into the booth seat, "but it needs to be done, and someone needs to do it."_

 _"And you certainly jumped at the call." Kirito winced at the harshness of his own words._

 _In better days the Agil he had known before would never have suggested such a thing. While he had always been a great fighter, his axe had never been directed at other players. It was amazing how much time, stress and loss could change a man._

 _Agil closed his eyes for a moment as he took a deep breath, letting it out as a longsuffering sigh. When they opened again, they glared sharply at the boy. He spoke in a quiet, forcibly even tone. "The red guilds are getting more bold. Attacks against lower level players are becoming much more common, and there's rumours Laughing Coffin has started to absorb lesser red guilds. You can't deny that if we don't act quickly, we're going to have a serious problem on our hands."_

 _Agil continued, his speech becoming more impassioned as he went on. "The clearing groups won't help. They've got their hands full with the constant witch hunts, and even if they didn't, they're losing too many people pushing upwards to spare any our way."_

 _Ever since the revelation that Heathcliff had been their captor in disguise then promptly vanished, there was no shortage of questions. How long had he_ been _Heathcliff? Had he been playing alongside them this whole time, or had he joined them at some point after the game started? There were ten thousand names on the Monument of Life, and Heathcliff was one of them. Either he had included himself in the initial count of ten thousand, or he had replaced someone who had been lucky enough to have not been online when the death game started._

 _There was also the distinct possibility that he had replaced a player after they'd died. While it was much more likely that Kayaba had simply set aside a slot for himself, nobody could deny the possibility that he could take someone, anyone's place. Add to that what people had heard of the AI Yui, who Kirito himself had thought was human before her revelation and there was suddenly no shortage of suspicion and paranoia. Kayaba was an admin in an MMO. He could look like anyone if he wanted to._

 _As Kirito said, there was nothing more boring that watching someone else play a videogame. Who was to say that Kayaba hadn't slipped back into their ranks, and who was to say none of the clearers, those in the most dangerous job in Aincrad, hadn't died or been replaced by him or his sophisticated AIs?_

 _The clearing groups were coming to a stall, hemorrhaging players that either ducked out from the constant inquisitions or died in the field. Worse still, the floors had been getting much harder as they worked upwards, and the players that were willing to replenish the ranks were finding themselves more and more often under leveled and under prepared for the enemies they faced._

 _Kirito said nothing, giving the larger man a change to wind down. Instead, he only grew more earnest and forceful._

 _"We can't allow these red guilds to keep moving unopposed. If we don't nip this in the bud they're going to keep getting stronger." Agil turned his head downwards, putting his face in darker shadow. "Mark my words, Kirito, I don't know what their plans are, but Urbus is only the beginning. If we don't stop this now, we're going to lose this game."_

 _Kirito shuffled uncomfortably in his seat. Urbus was the first city of the second floor. Most people had long ago left it behind, but after all this time there were still a lot of players that had never progressed past the lower floors. They had their reasons, from fear of dying to simply refusing to play the game, as though that defiance would deny Kayaba any satisfaction. While others were active players that lived there for the scenery, most were the weakest players in Aincrad, never venturing too far upwards._

 _The Urbus Event, named so vaguely because many still refused to believe it even happened, was a supposed incursion by Laughing Coffin into the eponymous town's safe zone almost ten days ago. According to one player that managed to teleport away, several red players had appeared without warning and slaughtered the inhabitants. Specific numbers varied from differing estimates but by the time anyone investigated, the town was empty, save for thirty seven various weapons left behind, stabbed into the ground in a ring surrounding the town teleporter. A quick check to the Monument of Life was able to verify all their previous owners were dead._

 _Such an attack should not be possible within a safe zone, and in no time there was intense debate on the subject. SAO was unforgiving, but it was fair. A safe zone was safe, and nobody had yet to find a way to kill a player in one apart from a duel. While you could murder someone with a duel if you manipulated them into accepting a challenge while they were sleeping, this did not match up with the idea of an invasion and slaughter of so many people at once. If it were in any way credible that Laughing Coffin had found some loophole to attack them in their bastions, this posed a serious concern. Not only were the clearing groups falling apart above them, now they had a potential threat from below._

 _"Listen, we can still fix this." Agil said, in a voice that sounded almost hopeful. "I've got solid intel on where their current HQ is. If we hit them now, we can end this before they strike again. Cut the head off before they know we're coming."_

 _"I'm sorry." Kirito said plainly. "I don't kill people."_

 _"I'm sure Kuradeel would disagree." Agil countered._

 _He nearly bit his lip. "Back then I had something to fight for."_

 _Agil leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table and clasping his hands under his chin. He gave his old friend a long, piercing glare, seeming to finally understand his situation. He slid out from the booth, standing to his feet and staring down at him. "I didn't want to believe it, but they're right about you, aren't they. There's nothing left."_

 _Kirito offered no rebuttal. "Goodbye, Agil."_

 _"Goodbye," Agil turned, "Kazuto."_

Kirito turned back to his plate, finding it had gone cold at some point. Resigning himself to his now less appetizing meal he dug in. Perhaps, if he'd gone along with Agil that wouldn't have been their final goodbye. The man had made his rounds, traveling from town to town, grabbing as many willing and able combatants as he could find. They were formed into a new guild, made specifically with the intent of eradicating Laughing Coffin: Ravenstorm. Named so due to their pitch black garb, the bird on their emblem and the fury they would bring down upon their foes.

Once prepared, Agil and sixty five players had marched upon Laughing Coffin's base. A week later, four came back, and the ones that had hoped to bring down the storm had only provoked it. Agil's March, as it came to be known, had marked the beginning and end of the first of five attempted red purges, setting the stage for a long and bloody conflict. The time to strike had passed.

Kirito looked up from his meal, across the table to the empty seat opposite him. "Agil, you were right."

* * *

Author's Notes: We look back at our divergence point and some of its ramifications when you essentially have an evil god that can look like anyone he wants, and no idea if he would do that more than once. If anyone occasionally gets a little confused on when or where Kirito is, that's somewhat intentional. This fic will be largely looking back as everything moves forward, and the past is not guaranteed to be in chronological order.


	4. Single Player Experience

_"Three weeks ago there were two deaths. Five days after that there were three more, then another two the next day, and another four a few days after. Eleven days ago, six more dead. Finally, eight days ago there was the Urbus Event. At least thirty seven dead. It is time we accepted that Kayaba is not our only enemy. More importantly, it is time we accept that he is not the more dangerous. Kayaba is content to wait for us to climb up after him to the top of the world. I say we let him wait. We cannot continue working our way upwards while ignoring the animals that have been biting at our heels. Kayaba is a goal, Laughing Coffin is a threat. One that we must address. They are gaining strength and momentum. Now is the time to strike back. Now is the time to show them that their murderous guild will not be tolerated. Fight with me, and we can end Laughing Coffin."_

 _-Agil, addressing a gathered crowd in Algade's town square, three weeks before his estimated time of death-_

* * *

The large double doors closed shut, their cast iron latches rattling as they settled into place. Inside was a maze of interconnecting corridors and rooms making up the labyrinth that housed the floor boss. The walls were made from pressed sandstone blocks, and the floor from polished quartzite slabs. Along the walls were ensconced oil lamps, illuminating the area with a comfortable amount of light. Most of the halls were easily five meters wide, made to accommodate either a moving party or a small fight without being too confined. With only one player the labyrinth felt overly spacious.

Kirito didn't bother opening his map. He'd been here enough times in the last couple weeks to navigate without it. After a brief moment brushing away the sand that had clung to his boots, he set out to once again kill the Vasiliás Fídi. The halls were featureless, save for the lamps, with no hints as to where they went, but Kirito confidently strode along. It wasn't long until his weren't the only footsteps echoing off of them.

They were two sets of heavy footfalls, thumping along, accompanied by the sound of something broad dragging along the floor. Kirito rounded a corner to spot the common mob to occupy this dungeon. The figures were about his height, but would have been taller had they not been hunched over. They were humanoid, save for the tail that dragged a meter behind them and the snake's head atop their shoulders. The flesh on their outer arms and the front of their legs, as well as their, chests, backs and necks were composed of brick red scales, while the inside of the arms, the back of their legs and their abdomens were made up of more human looking skin, albeit of such an unhealthy pallor that the veins and hints of red muscle could be seen underneath.

They wore mismatched and incomplete portions of armour. One had a set of iron greaves and leather bracers, while the other had its entire left arm covered in plate with the other bare and nothing but boots on its lower half. The former wielded a scimitar, while the latter bore a rusted battle axe. Above their heads were their icons and their titles: _Desert Snakeman Footsoldier_.

The one with the axe threw back its head and drew in a deep breath, letting it out as a shrill screech that reverberated through the halls and rattled the nearby lanterns. The call was cut short as a throwing dagger sank into the soft flesh under its chin. Drawing Elucidator in a two handed grip, Kirito charged them. A wide horizontal strike from the one with the scimitar was ducked under as he closed the distance, stabbing his blade deep into its gut. Instead of pulling it out, Kirito forced the sword down and to the left, roughly cutting through the beast and exiting at its right thigh with enough momentum to quickly swing all the way around him into another wrath cut.

Kirito didn't bother to block the axe swinging downward to cleave his head, instead merely twisting on his right heel out of the way, letting it impact the floor with a loud crack. Before it could raise the weapon back up Kirito thrust his sword out, impaling the snakeman's leading knee. With a wrenching twist of the blade, the joint came apart with a splintering snap and a pained howl. As the creature dropped to one knee, Kirito brought his own up to collide with its chin, driving the embedded throwing dagger into its skull to poke up through its crown. Elucidator was brought around in a horizontal strike that sliced through its neck, decapitating it.

Just as he was finishing the other foe with a pair of rapid cuts, another four snakemen rounded a nearby corner to join the battle, called by the screeching wail that had signaled his presence. Wasting no time, Kirito switched to a one handed grip and unsheathed his Lambent Light. Activating a dash attack, Kirito flashed past the leading creatures to strike the one at the rear, sinking the rapier so deep into its chest that the quillons collapsed two of its ribs. Before they could turn to face him he was already a flurry of flashing steel and glimmering system skills. Elucidator would hack and slash into one foe while Lambent Light would thrust and stab into another. Kirito was here to kill the floor boss, a few minions were nothing but a speed bump. When only one enemy remained, Kirito evaded its last desperate strike with a simple back step then surged forward again to drive his rapier into its shoulder while his main sword was brought around to slice through its throat. It exploded into pixels, and with a flourish Kirito sheathed his weapons in one motion. Not a single blow had connected with him.

After recovering his fallen throwing dagger, one last straggler poked its head into view. While any human might take a moment to rethink their options when engaging someone that had just effortlessly felled five of their comrades, most mobs were not so concerned with self-preservation. Snakemen were not among the exceptions. It roared a challenge and raised its short sword, advancing as though it believed it stood a chance.

Kirito sighed, having just sheathed his swords. He didn't feel like drawing them again for one runt, so he met its charge bare handed. Once in range it opened with a simple overstrike, bringing its short sword in a straight down arc. Kirito twisted on his right heel, avoiding the blade while still advancing. He continued the motion, performing a full spin as he stepped, swinging his left arm in a backhand that connected at the completion of his turn, slamming into the creature's temple. A pair of quick jabs into its ribs forced it into the retreat to try and bring its weapon to bear against a foe that was too close.

It tried to defend itself with a horizontal slash from its right, but Kirito was close enough to catch his wrist with his left hand. Closing the distance further, he ducked down to wrap his main arm around the creature's leading right leg, lifting it off the ground as he toppled it. His target flopped onto its back, and its defiant growl was cut short as Kirito stomped his left heel into is throat. When that didn't quite finish the job, the boot was raised again to repeat the motion with more force, collapsing its windpipe. With a ragged wheeze, the creature expired.

Kirito waved away the after battle pop up. These mobs didn't drop anything worth taking the time to read the report for every fight. He readjusted his long coat and closed his eyes to listen a moment for anything else nearby. When nothing made itself known he resumed his trek towards the only thing here worth fighting.

The trip to the boss room took just under thirty minutes. Though the snakemen were easily dispatched and slow enough for him to outrun, he wasn't able to completely ignore them. While many mobs had a limited aggro range, those found in the main dungeons would follow you anywhere within the labyrinth, and they would only accumulate if he didn't take the time to deal with them. Still, he was familiar with his route, and everything was taking as long as he'd expected. Boss labyrinths were designed for incursions by larger parties of players, it made sense that one person could get bogged down in it.

He stopped in front of the entrance to the boss arena to prepare himself for the first real fight since he'd gotten here. The Iron double doors stood at nearly seven meters in height and just as wide. On it was etched a large meter wide Celtic looking sigil with Gaelic runes written around it, entirely at odds with the serpentine theme the boss and the smaller enemies had.

Kirito triple checked his gear before entering. His dagger harness was restocked to replace two knives he'd already lost. One his left hip was an armoured pouch for his potions that started at his belt and reached down to the middle of his thigh where another strap held it securely in place. Like any garment or piece of armour, weapons that struck hard enough would still pass through, but the purpose of the protection was so that the majority of the durability damage would be taken by the container and not its contents. A heavy fall, a well-aimed cut or a hit from a mace could ruin the fragile glass flasks inside if the container wasn't properly protected, and even then it as best not to test it too often. He spent a few minutes performing some stretches, and once satisfied in his preparations, pushed open the door to enter into the chamber beyond.

A lot of the boss rooms were made to be impressive or intimidating. They were arenas where players faced off against what was generally the mightiest single enemy on the floor, save for some hidden or challenge bosses one could happen across. One could expect banners and tapestries hanging on the walls if it fit the theme, or perhaps mountains of bones if one was meant to be cowed, or a grand and massive chamber if one was meant to feel small. For the Vasiliás Fídi, the room wasn't nearly so ostentatious. Despite having such a regal name, the arena it resided in was unusually simple. The room was large enough to accommodate the fight, but it was entirely barren.

The floors were made from the same polished quartzite as the rest of the labyrinth, and the walls from the same pressed sandstone. There weren't even any pillars. It was a simple, empty round room nearly fifty meters in diameter. The only thing in the room was the lamia chimera that was the Vasiliás, and a throne in the very center. It wasn't even sitting in it, instead standing a distance beside it instead with its kris swords already in hand.

Like every time that he come here before, the event that would be their duel began with the entryway sealing shut, and the monstrous beast giving a loud roar in challenge before whipping its tail into the throne, smashing it to pieces. Kirito knew there was some ingame lore regarding the display, but had never had any inclination to learn the fake history of an artificial world he was trying to escape.

The beast's dark red icon appeared over its head, and nearer its shoulder were four vertically stacked health bars. Its ursine visage glared at him, as though the bear headed monster recognized him from their previous battles. With a long kris sword in each of its four hands, the chimera slithered towards him on its brick red reptilian lower body.

 _Here we go._ Kirito thought to himself as he drew his Elucidator, wielding the bastard sword in a two handed grip.

Once they were in range the Vasiliás swung both of its right swords in simple horizontal slashes. Kirito dodged out the way, responding with a quick cut of his own before dodging away from both of the monster's left swords. In its first stage, the Vasiliás was easy enough. It would move both arms on one side in parity, so any attack with its right weapons would use both right arms in identical motions, and any attacks from the left would do the same. Its movements were slower, but the blows were forceful enough that Kirito wasn't able to stand his ground and block them without the assistance of a system skill.

For every sluggish strike it made, Kirito would dodge out of the way and slip back in to deliver one or two of his own. The process repeated over and over, slowly whittling away the Vasiliás first health bar. Kirito could likely damage it faster, but it was best to play it safe and slow during the first phase. It took several minutes for him to fully deplete the first health bar, but he was able to do it without taking a single hit himself.

The Vasiliás coiled its tail and lunged away from him. The creature gave a hearty roar, signaling the beginning of the second and final phase. Kirito steeled himself, knowing this is where the real fight began. Kirito didn't wait for it to make the first move, drawing his second sword and charging in to press the attack. He was immediately forced on the defense as the four undulating swords struck at him in a constant stream of steel striking from all directions. It he'd come with anyone else the monster might have divided its attention between them, but Kirito had the unfortunate distinction of being one of the few remaining people in Aincrad willing to face a floor boss alone.

A wrath cut from the top right sword, an under cut from the bottom left, a middle cut from the upper right, followed by a stab from the bottom right. Each arm moving independently in rapid fire sequence. The sheer volume of incoming attacks was staggering and unrelenting. The only way for Kirito to keep from being overwhelmed was to do what he was best at: being the fastest pair of swords in Aincrad. This alone wasn't enough. Every cut or stab he managed to land was a trade, letting his enemy deal glancing blows or shallow cuts to give him enough of an opening to deal one of his own.

The tail swept in from the right. Kirito jumped back a split second before it slapped the floor where he'd just been standing. Seeing that he was thrown off his rhythm, the creature quickly coiled its tail behind it and surged forward. With its top two swords it performed simultaneous diagonal cuts from both sides. Kirito raised his own weapons to block them, rooting himself in place and instantly regretting it as the Vasiliás followed by stabbing both of its bottom swords out. Kirito staggered as a pair of kris impaled him. The two swords were raised, lifting Kirito off the ground. The boss roared in his face and whipped him to the side, tossing him across the room.

The boy tumbled in a rough heap, stopping with a loud squeak against the polished floor. Kirito raised to one knee. As before, the Vasiliás paused, not immediately attacking a downed foe. Again, if he were with anyone else, the boss would topple one player and move on to another. With nobody else here to engage, it huffed at Kirito as if it were impatient but gave him a moment. Taking advantage of the pause, Kirito dug out a health potion from his pouch and hurredly downed it. He stayed down, stalling as long as he could to allow his health to replenish.

His life bar had just refilled to two thirds when the chimera resumed its attack, swiftly slithering towards him with weapons raised. From there it become more of a damage race. Kirito could reliably land strikes of his own, though too often as trades as opposed to a clean hit. The problem was that his opponent had significantly more health than him, and dealt much more damage than him per strike.

Kirito blocked a sword swinging in from his right while stabbing his rapier into the Vasiliás gut, catching a heavy slash from his left in exchange. His health dipped deep into the orange. Blocking another trio of blows, Kirito retreated a few steps and took the stance to activate his dash attack system skill, flashing off to the right away from his foe. He came to an abrupt half a few meters away. It wasn't far, and the skill had a long cool down, but it gave him enough space to quickly jab his Lambent Light into the floor and dig another of his health potions out. He'd downed it just as the chimera caught up with him. Kirito retrieved his sword and, shameful as it was, took off running.

The Vasiliás couldn't slither as fast as he could run, and he needed the time to allow the health potion to take effect. A crystal would have fully refilled his life bar instantly, but within the anti-crystal zone the boss room was situated in they weren't an option. A healing potion worked well enough but they took time, gradually replenishing a portion of his hit points.

Kirito was briefly thankful that there was nobody to see him run around the arena in a large circle with the Vasiliás in hot pursuit. It was a trick that took advantage of the gamier nature of Aincrad and his current foe's less than stellar AI. It wouldn't work on faster, smarter or longer reaching foes, and gave an embarrassingly silly feeling to what was otherwise a life or death battle. The problem with it was that the chimera didn't tire, while he did. Fighting as hard as he could with bouts of sprinting at full tilt, broken by only a few seconds pause on the occasion he caught a blow heavy enough to throw him across the room left him without much time to catch his second wind. The process was wearing him down about as quickly as it wore away his opponent's health.

Kirito panted heavily as he ran, the chimera close behind him. It had taken an hour, but he'd whittled the boss down to its last health bar and removed one of its arms. He was more and more out of breath as time dragged on. Soon enough he wouldn't be able to hold his own or outrun it. His legs burned with each step, and his arms grew heavy. Staving off exhaustion as long as he could, he waited for his last potion to fill his health back to almost eighty percent.

 _Close enough_. Kirito turned to once again face his opponent.

"Switch!" A voice called out, freezing him in his tracks.

A flutter of chestnut hair in the corner of his vision snapped his attention away from the approaching boss. When he turned his head, there was nothing there. He was still puzzling over this when the room seemed to suddenly fly sideways as the Vasiliás swung its tail around to slam the appendage into him. He whirled through the air in a long arced tumble. Kirito landed with a twist on his left foot, felt it roll as his momentum carried him further to have his shoulder blades impact the floor. The sound of steel skittering against stone could be heard as his rapier came free of his grip. He rolled backwards and flopped onto his stomach, finally coming to a skidding halt against one of the walls.

He muttered a pained, drawn out "Ow."

His entire body was sore, with his left leg especially so. He lifted himself to one knee, searching for his lost sword, finding it thankfully not too far off. Kirito pulled out another glass flask, imbibing its contents while the Vasiliás roared in triumph. Standing would cause the chimera to attack him, but he had enough distance and was close enough to his sword to reach it in time. Deciding that he might as well get this back on track, he took to his feet.

A pained shout escaped him as he fell over. In his rough landing, his left foot had rolled free of its socket. Injuries in SAO didn't hurt as much as in the real world, but the game was not without its pain. Standing on a dislocated foot only to have it slip out of the way to leave the bottom of his fibula to scrape against the floor was one of the more unpleasant experiences in recent memory. The Vasiliás, however, was apathetic to this problem. Kirito had tried to stand, so according to its AI he was back in the fight.

Kirito tried not to panic, immobilized on the floor with his still three armed foe approaching. He tried to force the foot back into place, but it had turned entirely around, and every attempt to correct this sent a spike of pain shooting up his leg. He hobbled and crawled over to his fallen sword, retrieving it just in time to block a pair of swipes from both sides. The third arm tried to thrust at his chest, but Kirito was able to twist his torso out of the way. His own weapons were brought in to slice at its extended wrist in a scissoring motion, and he was rewarded with the limb breaking apart into pixels as it was severed.

The Vasiliás spun away from him, giving Kirito enough warning to avoid the tail trying to sweep his legs out from under him. It was raised, and the muscular tail was brought back down in an attempt to crush him. Kirito jumped away, stumbling over when he stepped too heavily on his ruined foot but avoiding the strike that slapped the floor hard enough to crack it. He quickly leapt back at it, stabbing his rapier down through it, impaling it deep enough for the weapon to dig into the stone floor. The Vasiliás howled in anger and pain, but before it could free itself Kirito gathered himself on his good foot and jumped onto it, using his body weight to hammer the sword deeper through the tail and into the floor to act as a stake.

The breath was punched from his lungs, as jumping onto a sword hilt jutting upwards was not a comfortable action, but the weapon was firmly lodged in place. Not wasting any time, Kirito grasped his remaining Elucidator and began to hack away at the tail. The chimera was rooted in place, but not defenseless. It coiled in on itself to face him, its health almost depleted. After one last slash, Kirito switched from the tail to the body, ducking under a blow that would have removed his head and plunged his weapon into its gut. Kirito vaulted over its tail away from its swinging swords, leaving his own buried in its torso. The Vasiliás would have to uncoil and coil itself again in the other direction in order to bring itself to face him. Kirito tried to run, stumbled, and crawled as fast as he could away from it. Just as the Vasiliás was getting ready to try and free itself with a lunging attack, the two swords buried in its tail and body finished off the rest of its health with their gradual damage. Almost anticlimactic, it gave a last angry bellow that dragged on into a defeated howl before it expired, showering the area in an explosion of prismatic shards.

Glad the ordeal was over, Kirito flopped himself over to lie on his back, his chest heaving with exhausted gasps. Over time, the sharp spike in his ankle and foot turned to a dull throb, demanding his attention. He curled up into a sitting position to inspect his foot. The boot was wrenched far enough around that his toes were pointing behind him. Broken, dislocated or severed limbs could be restored or repaired with higher grade healing crystals, but even with the boss dead the area's anti-crystal zone was still present. If he waited it out, the foot would slip back into place on its own in about fifteen minutes. Not wanting to be hobbled any longer than necessary, Kirito opted to take a more manual approach. He bent the leg to bring the dangling foot closer, and tenderly grasped it with both hands.

After turning it back around so that it was facing the right direction he tried to line it up to its proper place, wincing and cringing all the while. Once he was confident he was ready, he took a deep breath, placed a hand on his shin to brace it, his right palm on the sole of his foot, and pressed the two together. His held breath came free as a long grunt of effort and pain. With an audible pop the joint reconnected, earning an embarrassingly high pitched yelp. Making sure everything worked as it should, he softly moved the foot in each direction, tender as it still was.

 _They certainly spared no expense in making this realistic._ Kirito thought bitterly. The sensation wasn't too dissimilar from what he'd felt from a similar injury he'd once have happen to his hand in the real world. Kendo was not without its risks if you played hard enough. _The bastards really thought of everything._

A glance at his HUD revealed it was only a few minutes after ten at night; he'd finished earlier this time. He limped over to gather his weapons and plopped back down next to the doors to sit with his back against the wall. Making his way through the labyrinth wouldn't be hard even with a limp, but it was easier to give it a few minutes for the sensitive flesh to mend. A wave of his hand summoned his menu, and a few prods revealed the prize from the fight. He summoned it, letting it drop into his hands.

 _Finally._

The object was a simple but elegant band of bright blue metal made from the same material as his Lambent Light rapier. There were five slots for gemstones the size of his thumbnail arrayed around it, though all were empty. The front of the piece had a rough split that looked like a sword had cleaved through it, and the inside of the band near the split was stained red. Vaguely curious, Kirito appraised it to read the description.

 _Sundered Crown: Grants resistance to venomous poisons. Fashioned and worn by Queen Elyria as a ward against the King of Serpents that had gazed upon her wealth with covetous eyes. Sadly, while it provides a strong defense against poison, it granted no protection from more direct attacks. As a final solace, the invading Snake was sealed forever in her empty hold, trapped with a throne he could never command._

 _Huh,_ he returned the item to the ether and waved away his menu, _guess that explains the theatrics._

Having settled down from his long battle, Kirito felt his eyes becoming heavy. With the night still young, his foot still sore and plenty of time to travel back, he saw little harm in closing them for a few minutes. He drew his longsword and rested it across his lap as he let sleep take him to better days.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _His eyes drifted open, letting in the warm midday light. He was enjoying a day of relaxation after having taken part in the clearing of the sixty fifth floor's boss dungeon. Presently, he was sitting with his back against the oak tree in his back yard, enjoying the pleasant shade and company found under it. A couple meters in front of him was his Elucidator, stabbed into the ground for reasons he couldn't recall but gave no mind to. More important to him was the warmth pressing into his right side._

 _"Welcome back." Asuna was sitting against the same tree, shoulder to shoulder him with. "I was starting to think you'd never wake up."_

 _"Sorry." He yawned and arched his back. "Bit of a long day yesterday."_

 _Kirito took on a more jovial tone. "Big fight with a floor boss, and all. I guess you'd have to have been there."_

 _"Hey," she nudged her elbow into his ribs, "it's your fault I got thrown off. You'd've been flattened if I wasn't there to save your butt."_

 _He smiled with a genuine warmth. The boss battle had taken place on a large raised platform over an indoor lake, from which Asuna and a few others had been launched from during the fight. It wasn't too bad, with a soft landing in the still waters, though it took almost a full ten minutes to work your way back up from there. Asuna had taken a blow meant for him, something he hoped she wouldn't make a habit of, and had been thrown clear. He hadn't worried, since he could her still bountiful health bar in his HUD, but by the time she'd gotten back to the fight Klein was delivering the coup de grace._

 _She gave him a worried look that caught him off guard. "Are you planning on staying long? Shouldn't you be headed back out?"_

 _Kirito replied with an unsure laugh. "We just cleared a floor boss. I think I've earned a little time off."_

 _Her expression deepened. "You've beaten the Vasiliás Fídi, but you shouldn't rest here too long."_

 _"The Gargant." He corrected. "The boss of the sixty fifth was the Gargant Malleus."_

 _"I know." She pulled herself to her feet. Without meeting his eyes she started towards the back porch of their home. "It isn't safe here; you need to run along."_

 _Kirito extended a hand to her but she was out of his reach. Kirito got up to follow after her, stepping past his Elucidator. He stumbled as his foot met empty space where there should have been solid ground. The grass around him pulled inwards like he'd stepped on a sheet of cloth, revealing a hollow void in the shape of a grave with his Elucidator at its head. Kirito sank through, about to cry out in surprise when he didn't blink so much as the world did, and he found himself standing on his back porch._

 _He tried to slow his short, rapid breaths, looking over his yard to see neither grave nor sword under the tree. He reached a hand behind his head and found his weapons already in their scabbards. A soft clattering of cookware drew his attention to his home. The wondrous aroma of fresh baked meat pie wafted out from the open back window_

 _Kirito took a deep breath and reached for the handle._ Let's try this again.

 _The door opened and he stepped through, briefly closing his eyes when a gust of air smelling of smoke blew in his face from inside. When he opened them again he was no longer at his home, instead standing in a different time and place. It was evening, nearly dusk, and he was on the battlements on the outer wall of a larger city. With the breeze came sounds and smells he'd never wanted to experience again._

 _There wasn't a moment's confusion; he instantly knew when and where he was. Kirito doubted he would ever be able to forget the stench of burning flesh, or the multitude of distant screams from which it came. Even now, he could single out one voice amongst all the others. He wrenched his eyes shut, not wanting to see this again. The designers of SAO had spared no expense in studying the various sensations the human body could experience. The nervegear could fabricate any smell, sound, feeling, taste or sight, and it was all culminating in a screaming pyre. With how Aincrad had turned out, one couldn't help but wonder if events like these were a consequence or part of the plan._

 _"You shouldn't be here." Came a voice from beside him._

 _Kirito opened his eyes to see Klein staring out over the parapets. His face was lit by both the waning sun and the far off fires Kirito couldn't bring himself to look at._

 _"Sorry about this," His friend turned to face him and softly placed a hand on both of his shoulders, "but it's time you run along."_

 _Without further warning Klein grabbed onto the fabric of Kirito's coat and spun around to slam him iinto the parapet of Taft's outer wall. His head impacted the stone with a resounding crack._

Kirito lurched forward with gasp, returned to the empty boss room of the Vasiliás Fídi. According to the clock in his HUD he'd only been out for around twenty minutes. The cold sweat that had accumulated on his face was wiped away with his sleeve. When a few taps of his foot against the floor gave him no pain, he pulled himself up to be on his way. The doors to leave the arena were opened and his Elucidator drawn. The mobs within the labyrinth respawned after an hour, so he'd have to fight his way back out, easy as it would be.

A squad of five guards waited outside, normally to keep anyone from entering. After the effort of killing the Vasiliás, they were nothing. There was definitely something cathartic about carving your way through enemies that were supposed to be tough after a difficult fight. With the chimera dead, Kirito could be sure he was the strongest thing in the dungeon, probably even the strongest thing on this floor, barring any hidden area bosses he hadn't discovered. The niggling thought at the back of his mind that the Vasiliás Fídi was the boss of the seventy ninth floor. After four and a half years in Aincrad he still hadn't traveled any higher than the eighty third floor, and he had no illusions that he could challenge its boss at his present level.

A soft scuffing sound reached his ears, causing Kirito to snap his head towards it. He thought he spotted movement a ways down one of the corridors as a whisper spoke to him.

"Run along, Kirito." She said.

While he enjoyed seeing her in his better dreams, her intrusion into the waking world was like scratching at a scar in his mind. As his fight with the Vasiliás had shown, it was a dangerous distraction, and more importantly was a madness he was not prepared to accept.

Without any reply he continued on his trek to the labyrinth's exit. He was just finishing cutting down another group of snakemen when he heard it again, and again she spoke. He could hear her voice as though she was both beside him as well as directly in his brain. This was a poor sign.

"Kirito, li-"

He balled up a fist and rubbed it against the back of his head. _Stop it._

Her words were ignored as he kept moving. It was another ten minutes of peaceful silence before he heard more scuffing ahead of him.

"Kirito." She was getting insistent.

Paying no mind to her words he rounded the corner, thankful for the distraction a quick bout with a mob would make. Instead, there was nothing there. From the edge of his view he caught a glimmer of movement. He turned just in time to see a head of chestnut hair duck out of sight.

Without thinking he followed after, almost at a jog, but once again there was neither mob nor phantom in sight.

"Kirito!" She shouted. "Listen to me!"

" _What!?_ " He finally replied aloud in a harsh whisper, scratching at the back of his skull. He dipped his head and pinched at his nose in rising frustration.

His breath caught in his throat as he felt it. The light filtering in through his eyelids growing slightly darker, the almost imperceptible shift in the acoustics of the corridor around him, the nearly silent sound of someone standing still, all the smaller sensations coming together in a way that one would feel the presence of another without seeing them.

"Kirito." Her voice wasn't in his head, but directly in front of him.

He kept his eyes closed, torn between opening them or shutting them righter, unsure if he was more afraid of seeing nobody there but the empty corridor, or her.

"Listen to me." The voice of Asuna said. She was so close he could almost feel the heat of her breath as she spoke. "Run along."

With his head still angled downwards he finally cracked open his eyes, just far enough to see her pair of white boots. "I'm still dreaming."

"But not sleeping. You need to listen." She said, low enough to be a whisper. "Listen, and run."

There wasn't much to hear, only the sound of his own breathing and heartbeat. It took a few seconds for it to dawn on him what was wrong with that. The labyrinth was empty. Too empty. The entire garrison of snakemen should have spawned by now, but he'd only encountered the ones directly outside the boss room and one other group. Having been here enough times, Kirito was somewhat familiar with the spawning locations and patrol paths of the dungeon's enemies; in his trip to the exit he should have encountered more than that.

Something was very wrong. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end when he heard it again. The soft scuffing. Now that he was listening for it, he was able to tell what it was: a pair of light, nearly silent footfalls almost too far away to hear. Too far for them to belong to the specter haunting him within arm's reach. Snakemen did not walk lightly, nor were they ones to ever attempt a stealthy approach. His ear twitched as he detected another footfall from down the corridor in the opposite direction. Snakemen did not flank. These were not the steps of any mobs he would find here.

As unpleasant as being alone could be, coming to the sudden realization that you're not can be much, much worse.

He was slowly reaching for his swords when she screamed into his mind. " _Run!_ "

Prompted into action, Kirito took off at a full tilt sprint. He couldn't teleport away until he was out of the labyrinth, and he was hesitant to abandon his steed and cat. The horse could be replaced at any stable, albeit for a price, but the panther had been much harder to acquire. No doubt hearing the significantly louder sound of his running footfalls, they knew they'd been detected. The pretense of stealth having been dropped, he could hear them running after him.

Kirito took a roundabout path to the exit, knowing that to head directly there in a straight line would likely have him collide with one lying in wait. Hazarding a glance behind him revealed nothing he could see. In the maze of a labyrinth, one could take many ways to follow someone while staying out of line of sight. To his credit, Kirito was confident that even now he was one of the faster, if not fastest people in Aincrad. When the sounds of pursuit grew more distant, he could hear them break off, no doubt to head for the exit and wait there. Skidding to a halt, he quickly opened his menu and summoned an item. A dark blue, metallic crystal in the shape of an octahedron appeared in his waiting hand. He pressed the button on one of its faces to activate the recording crystal and tossed it in the general direction of his pursuers. A few seconds later the sounds of steel clashing against steel issued from the item, filling the corridor with the echoes of a manufactured battle.

The enemy footfalls stopped, taking the bait and changing direction to head back his way. The prerecorded distraction was designed to make them think he'd run into a few mobs and had gotten stuck in a fight. Kirito had no intention of sticking around and left as quickly but quietly as he could. He took a few semi-random turns in the maze before heading in the general direction of the exit, taking a path that would avoid the larger corridors.

His recorded distraction had five minutes of audio to play. It ended with a harsh crack after less than one. Having for the moment eluded them, he arrived at the exit. The chamber was a large half circle nearly forty meters in radius. Almost a dozen corridors of varying sizes started here, winding away in their separate directions. Some went up or down, left or right, but on the way out they all lead here. Inside was a chandelier hanging from the vaulted ceiling, over a mostly empty chamber. There was a time worn brown rug by the doors, and along the wall by the door were a few generic lootable containers. On the right was a row of four chests, and on the left was a pair of armoires with another chest in between them. There was also supposed to be a few snakemen, of which there were none.

He watched and listened, but he couldn't detect anyone or anything in the room. Playing it safe, he summoned another item. It was small cloth bag the size of a coin purse, with a blackened string poking out of the top. From one of his pockets he pulled a match and struck it against the wall, lighting it. The sound announced his presence, and one of the armoires burst open. Kirito lit the fuse and tossed the bag. Before it hit the floor it exploded, filling the room with a thick black smoke. With his impromptu cover in place Kirito made a break for the exit. He shoulder checked one of the large doors open and ran for where he'd left his pets, pumping his arms and legs as hard as he could.

It was a cloudless night in the desert. Clear stars and a bright moon illuminated the sandy flats. Even in his blackened garb he knew he couldn't rely on the cover of darkness.

As he fled he hazarded a glanced back at the labyrinth. Dense smoke still billowed from its open doors, and from it emerged a trio of figures. He had enough of a lead on them to not be able to make out any features, but he could guess who they belonged to. He sacrificed a little speed to open his menu and summoned the means to his escape. Teleport crystals were too fragile to carry on his person into battle, and corridor crystals were even more so. He looked over his shoulder so see one of the trio had broken off, leaving them behind as he approached him at an alarming pace, rapidly closing the distance.

Kirito arrived at the outcropping of stones he'd left his pets in, Yonaka instantly on alert. He kicked his sleeping horse to rouse it, causing it to respond with an agitated huff as it stood up. The corridor crystal was held up to his mouth as he spoke into it the words to activate it and designate the destination.

"Teleport: Fallback Ceti!"

The blue crystal glowed from within. He threw it to the ground a few meters away and it shattered, exploding with a pop of displaced air as it formed a flat oval vortex filled with a depthless white and blue swirling miasma. The chaotic energies within the portal lit up the surrounding area with an unnatural glow, tinting everything blue.

He pointed at the portal. "Yonaka: Go!"

The panther obeyed without hesitation, disappearing as she passed through the threshold. Kirito grabbed Horse by the reigns and tried to pull him after. Still upset at being kicked, the animal didn't budge. Hearing his enemies drawing near, Kirito let go and drew his Elucidator. With a heavy swing he slapped the flat of the blade into the mount's hindquarters with a loud _thwack_ , earning an angry whinny. He was about to strike it again when the beast of burden complied, having been sufficiently spurred into motion.

Wasting no time, Kirito ran through after it. There was a sensation of nauseating speed accompanied by passing lights flashing by as Kirito was warped from one portal to the other. After a couple seconds he was deposited near a small single storey cottage in a town that was more open fields and farmland than anything else. A safe zone, or at least it was supposed to be.

"Gateway:" He shouted to the still open portal. "Close!"

The portal collapsed in on itself and vanished in a spark as the tear in space mended. While a standard teleport crystal would warp one player without any fanfare and no way back, a corridor crystal could be used for multiple people. It functioned by creating a temporary gateway similar to the ones used for the town's fast travel network, sans the archway, connecting two specific points in space. They could be used to travel in either direction, and remained open for either fifteen minutes or until they were manually closed by the deactivation command.

He could have used a standard teleport crystal to escape, but those only took one to the nearest town. It would have announced where he'd gone, even if he would only be there long enough to leave. There would have been a risk of them either following him with their own teleports, or the chance that someone was there waiting in case that happened. Better to warp away to somewhere of his choosing.

Fallback point Ceti was a cottage he owned in an out of the way farming village located on the temperate plains of the eastern edge of the seventy sixth floor. It didn't have much use except for as a supply house a teleport destination. A corridor crystal could create a portal linking to any city, town, named landmark or player owned home that a person had been to. The reason for using a fallback point instead of literally anywhere else he could have chosen was that to activate the corridor, you had to speak the destination's name. Better to use a custom named safe house that only he knew of than to announce where he was going to anyone in earshot.

His blood pumped at the adrenaline rush that had yet to subside. Fists were balled to keep his hands from shaking as he tried to calm himself. Counting his nearly botched fight with the Vasiliás Fídi, this was twice he'd almost died today.

 _Were they looking for me, or was this just chance?_ He wondered, scratching at the back of his head. Lucky as he'd been it was bound to happen eventually.

The error he'd made was obvious once he thought about it. Kirito had been farming the Vasiliás for almost a couple weeks now. Since floor bosses respawned every forty eight hours, if someone noticed that the boss had been cleared more than once following that schedule they could figure out what was going on and anticipate the next time he might come around. The potentially fatal mistake had been letting his objective dictate a pattern in his actions.

 _If they were expecting me there should have been more of them._ He had only seen or heard three. _Scouts who only gave chase once they knew they'd been spotted._

With that in mind he could figure out what had happened. His farming of the floor boss had been noticed, and scouts were dispatched to check during the next expected iteration. They'd no doubt already reported in and summoned a full hunting party by the time he'd detected them. It was a good thing he'd gotten out when he had. He'd narrowly avoided a tightening noose he hadn't even known was around his neck.

 _From now on, no more farming the big name bosses. Kill them twice at most before moving on and coming back sometime later._ He decided. With a long sigh he was finally able to steady himself, still absentmindedly rubbing the back of his scalp. _That was close._

"Too close." She agreed.

* * *

Author's Notes: Not sure how crazy you need to be for your hallucinations to notice things before you do. Chapters from here on will have a little header to give small peaks into the past that Kirito may not have been present for.

The injury system will be a bit more extensive than it was portrayed in the show, and while I acknowledge the pain is not a on to one ration to real life, it's still there. I think physical sensations would be pretty hollow if you didn't have the ability to fell pain, so it would make sense to me for the nervegear to be able to simulate it.

Thanks for reading, I hope you like it enough to stick around.


	5. Standing on the Edge of the Crater

_"I must remind you that the Knights of the Broken Oath are a clearing group. As such, we are dedicated to working our way upwards. Our main focus is and shall remain on achieving the end of this game. Due to frequent difficulty spikes and other ongoing hazards, I cannot spare any men or women from my guild to assist you. Furthermore, I cannot in good conscience volunteer them to fight other players in your proposed 'purge'. We should keep our swords pointed upwards, not at each other. For these reasons I must inform you that I am rejecting your request. I will not be sending any troops to aid you with your assault, and I implore you to reconsider your actions."_

 _-Thinker, replying to Agil via PM-_

The room was entirely too hot. Even closed shut the large furnace radiated a blistering heat that was only compounded with every huff and wheeze of the bellows. Thankfully, a cooling breeze steadily wafted in from the open windows, making the squat silo bearable. More fuel was added to the furnace as needed, the bellows spurring the flames along with each breath of air like an artificial lung. For the materials being worked with, a greater than usual heat was needed. Fortunately, Lisbeth's workshop was well equipped for the task at hand.

When enough time had passed the front of the furnace was opened. It belched out a wave of hot air that left one's eyes watering and skin parched. Reaching a pair of long metal tongs into the inferno, a glowing sword was pulled out. The softened weapon was placed into a mold of the same shape on top of a massive flat topped thigh high metal work table. Working quickly, the bellows were pumped with increased vigour, heating its remaining contents before the sword could cool. Not long after the tongs were reached in again, pulling out a thick cylindrical container made from the same off-beige material as the furnace. With slow, deliberate motions the heavy crucible was walked over to the still shining sword.

The crucible was carefully manipulated with the tongs to pour its contents evenly into the mold. Gleaming molten metal flowed over the blade like tar. The material's already bright blue colour was made even more brilliant in its current state. The metal was thick and didn't pour so much as roll out of the crucible. The blacksmith patiently waited, holding and moving the heavy container to make sure the material was placed as evenly as possibly. The contents were the molten remains of the sundered crown that the Vasiliás Fídi had dropped, as well as a few smaller painstakingly gathered ingots. Sweat dripped from the blacksmith's bare arms as the last of the metal slipped into the mold.

 _Lisbeth deposited the emptied crucible well out of the way on a stone countertop against the wall. Free of its weight she grabbed a nearby towel to sponge off the sweat from her brow and arms. Kirito watched her work, silently. He wasn't sure how true to life the crafting was in Aincrad, but he knew blacksmithing and metal forging was more work than he cared to do, at least with items as high level as his._

 _Due to the extra heat needed to make the material of his sword pliable, the furnace had been cranked up high enough to make Lisbeth's normal attire impracticably uncomfortable. She'd doffed her usual pink dress that made her look more like a waitress than a smithy, and instead wore a simple set of tan shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt. Over her front was a thick leather apron that was large enough to cover her body down to her knees. With her bare arms and legs coming out from behind it, it almost looked as if the protective garment was all she was wearing, save for her boots and gloves. Kirito kept his focus on the sword, unsure whether or not this this was intentional on her part._

 _The furnace was latched shut and left to burn down on its own. That out of the way she waited while the metal cooled and settled in the mold, turning to face him._

 _"Not many upgrade slots left in this thing." She asid, placing her hands on her hips, "Sooner or later I'll have to see about making you a new one."_

 _It ran against the normal logic one would use in an MMO, but Kirito couldn't imagine ever replacing this sword. He'd had it too long, been through too much and built too much sentimental value with it. The weapon might as well have been a part of his character, at this point._

 _She'd offered to upgrade his sword for him, free of charge. He knew it was a justification to draw him out. The expensive upgrade was really so she could speak with him. Kirito knew she had feelings for him, though she'd been kind enough to keep it too herself once it was clear where his heart lie. Ever since Asuna had passed, she'd remained one of his most supportive friends, and had not tried to become anything more. Still, he felt awkward letting her close._

 _It wasn't that she had been too forward, or had made any moves, or was even treating him like he was single again. In fact she'd been incredibly mature about the entire situation. No, she'd lost a dear friend as well, and had taken her own time to grieve. She'd merely recovered much quicker than he had and sought to help him do the same. The problem was that no matter how she tried to set it aside, he could sense that if he allowed it she would eventually fall into the void Asuna's death had left in him. Perhaps that might not be so bad. Still, Kirito refused to dare consider ever doing something as insulting to her memory as replace her. The wound was still too fresh to even think of it. Maybe it always would be._

The sword and the slurry coating it cooled enough to work with into an uneven mess, and the smith raised the hammer to pound at the malleable material. It was a curious notion, that, unless you were intentionally remaking a weapon into something else, you could take a sword, hammer more metal into it and in the end still end up with an item weighing the same with the same dimensions. A kilogram and a half sword, two kilograms of new smelted metal infused into it, and the result was the same weapon, completely identical save for the fact that when it cut things they got hurt more than before. After so long in Aincrad it was almost possible to forget you were in a game until you came across something so silly and unrealistic.

The sword was placed on a smaller anvil, the hammer tapping away to even out the metal back into the recognizable shape of his blade. It should have been a fruitless task, but with each tap the smelted metal was slowly absorbed into the blade, its mass vanishing nonsensically.

 _"If it's all the same to you I'll be keeping this a while longer." Kirito stated. The glowing blade started to simmer down back to its normal black colour._

 _"Should take better care of it, then." Lisbeth softly stated without looking away from her work._

 _He blinked in surprise at her comment. "I do."_

 _In response she gave a long 'mmhmmm', weighing her next words. "Time and rust will dull a blade just as much as overuse."_

 _"This sword doesn't rust. You should know that, you've worked on it enough times." Kirito raised an eyebrow. "What are you getting at?"_

 _"Then you should take better care of yourself. You're not so immune to atrophy." She paused, the tapping of the hammer coming to a momentary stop. "You ever think about getting back out there? Back on the front?"_

This again. _"No."_

 _"They could really use your help, you know." Lisbeth resumed her hammering, the tool ringing against the sword every half second like a metronome. "The front needs good people like you."_

 _"What they need is people they can count on."_

 _This wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation, and if he'd known to expect it Kirito wouldn't have come to have it now._

 _"We both know what happened wasn't your fault. At some point you're going to need to pull yourself up and get back on your feet." Lisbeth turned the sword over to start working on the other side. "How long has it been?"_

 _He didn't need to ask what she was referring to. "Four months, two weeks and five days."_

 _It was easy to keep track of the time when there was an ever present clock in your HUD and a calendar just a wave of the hand away. March 26, 2025. Last Wednesday of the month; not much longer and it would be April again._

 _"Don't you think it's been long enough?" Lisbeth prompted, looking up from the sword. "I'm sure Asuna wouldn't want you beating yourself up for the rest of your days."_

 _Another pause in the hammering. "It's okay to heal, Kirito"_

 _Kirito managed to break his eyes away, staring down at his feet. "I need more time."_

 _"It's…I jus-" He let out a small sigh. "Can we just drop it? Please?"_

 _There was a long silence punctuated by the taps of the hammer. She lifted it away from the table, walking it over to the anvil to start working on the edges. "You bring me any sword or axe or spear…anything, I can fix it for you. Guess I'm not so great with mending people."_

 _"Don't blame yourself."_

 _A slim smile briefly lightened her mood. "That's my line."_

The hammer was placed back on the table, its task finished. Next, the grinding wheel was brought up to speed with a few pumps of the foot pedal. Once ready the blade was gently held against it, wearing away any excess material and sharpening the edge. There was nothing but the sound of the wheel spinning, the pedal that operated it and the grinding of the blade. The metal the sword was made from didn't spark against the wheel, instead coming free in almost imperceptibly small slivers. The smith winced as a larger fragment came free, propelled fast enough for the sharp little shard to bury itself under the skin. A minor twitch and it was ignored.

 _"Fine." Lisbeth relented, grinding away at the sword. She knew that pushing the subject would get nowhere. "You at least keeping in touch with everyone?"_

 _"Saw Klein a few days ago. He's alright." Kirito commented. "You want to worry about someone worry about Agil. He's been messaging me. Keeps dropping hints about some kind of hunt for Laughing Coffin. I've already told him I'm not interested but he wants to meet and talk it over."_

 _It was such a strange idea to wrap one's head around, Agil rounding up a posse to hunt down other players. The imposing man had always been something of a gentle giant. Despite his vocal insistence otherwise, he was incredibly charitable. Most of the profits from his shop were spent helping equip less fortunate players, and he'd always been willing to haggle prices more generously than most. Agil had gone far out of his way to make sure as many people as he could help were well equipped to survive and thrive in Aincrad. He'd joined in clearing floor bosses, shared any map data he collected freely and had even spent the time to train several other fighters so they'd be up to par for the front lines. In opposition to the image of his intimidating frame and monstrous axe, he'd never attacked another player before._

 _That was before Laughing Coffin had started testing its strength._

 _Kirito supposed that a man could only watch for so long as the people he'd built up and supported were picked off one by one before he chose to do something about it. Only he knew how many comrades, allies and friends of his had fallen prey to the Coffin, but he'd lost five in the Urbus Event, alone._

 _"That reminds me, I'll have to make a run for more materials soon." Lisbeth said, more to herself than him. "He and his party have a lot of gear to tweak."_

 _Kirito's surprise was apparent. "Don't tell me you're going along with this?"_

 _"I'm not going with him, no, but I do support him." She replied. "It's unpleasant to think about but Laughing Coffin's a problem. One he's willing to fix. We can't all spend the next five months licking our wounds."_

 _Her breath caught in her throat as she cut her next statement short. "I'm sorry."_

 _He didn't take any offence._

"Apology accepted." Kirito said flatly.

Distracted from the work, the wheel had spun down to a halt. Snapping back to the moment, the pedal was depressed and the machine brought into motion. The scraping of stone on steel resumed as the sword was brought back against it.

 _"You sure you don't want a new sword?" She asked, changing the subject. "Now's the time to ask if you do."_

 _Kirito puzzled over her unexpected statement. "What's that supposed to mean?"_

 _She didn't answer, instead moving to a smaller, finer grinding wheel to put the finishing touches on his weapon._

 _He stepped around the workbench. "Lisbeth, what do you mean?"_

 _She didn't meet his eyes, focusing intently on the wheel. A few seconds later she stood up and walked over to the other side of the room, grabbing a cloth and wiping the blade down._

 _"Kirito," She began hesitantly, "you like my shop, right?"_

 _"Wait," this was taking an odd turn, "where's this coming from?"_

 _"Just answer the question, please." Lisbeth insisted._

 _He looked around and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. It's got a great setup in a prime spot. It's a good shop."_

 _Kirito sensed she was building up to something, her previous confusing statements and queries leading them to what she really wanted to ask. "You didn't invite me over just to upgrade my sword or talk about me getting back in the game. What's going on?"_

The grinding continued, filing the blade to an impressive edge with practiced precision.

 _Despite looking like she'd been preparing for this conversation, Lisbeth had a hard time saying what she'd been planning. After a couple false starts, she opened her menu and summoned a crisp sheet of paper covered in printed text._

 _She handed it over. "Here. I was hoping you might sign this."_

 _Confused again, Kirito took hold of the paper, or rather, the form, and read it over. Once finished he read it again. "You're giving me joint ownership of your shop? Why?"_

 _"It's…insurance." She explained nervously. "The shop will still be mine. This is just In case anything…happens to me."_

 _Lisbeth squared her shoulders, meeting his eyes with an expression that communicated a determination in her decision._

 _"I'm leaving, Kirito." Lisbeth picked up a pen from the nearby bench and held it out. "For the front."_

The grinding took on a harsher tone as it wore too deep into the sword, prompting the smith to readjust it.

 _"No." Kirito placed the form onto the table. "No, this isn't happening."_

 _Lisbeth stood her ground. "I've already made up my mind. I've already packed."_

 _"The front lines are no place for you!" Kirito shouted, louder than intended. "It's too dangerous up there!"_

 _"I can hold my own just fine." Lisbeth didn't raise her own voice. "I've been practicing, training every day. I passed their evaluation; I'm joining the Knights of the Broken Oath."_

 _"Do you have any idea how low they've had to drop their standards?" Kirito continued to shout, not even noticing how insulting his comment was. "You're a smith, not a fighter. Why do you even_ want _to join the front?"_

 _Her eyes narrowed at the unintended harshness of his words, her own tone sharpening in return. "We all need to do our part, Kirito, and I'm_ sick _of sitting here and waiting for everyone else to beat this for me. I'm doing this because I_ am _a fighter. When I was just starting out, selling odds and ends from a rolled out rug on the street, I had to fight for every col. I fought for this shop,"_

 _"plenty of times I've had to fight for my life," she continued, expressively jabbing her finger downwards, "and I'm still here. I'm done waiting on the sidelines letting someone else fight for my freedom."_

 _"There's no changing your mind, is there." It was more of a statement than a question. He already knew the answer.._

 _"You could always come with me." She suggested. "We could watch each other's backs, even."_

 _This is where it started. It would probably do him good to take her up on her offer. They'd look out for each other. He'd finally get back in the swing of things and have something to occupy his time and mind. Her offer was one to move on and finally start allowing himself to heal. He took a step back, almost recoiling at the idea._

 _It wasn't just an issue with replacing Asuna, it was the shame of his failure. He couldn't fight alongside the Knights of the Blood Oath, or as they had called themselves ever since Kayaba's betrayal, the Knights of the Broken Oath. It was his fault that their leader was exposed, and it was due to his failure confronting him that they'd lost their second in command, further destabilizing their power structure. It was all his fault. If he'd been faster, stronger, then she'd be alive, and Aincrad would be nothing more than a memory. Instead, here they were._

 _Lisbeth didn't need him to say anything, reading his answer well enough. She turned away, downcast and disappointed. "Okay, then."_

 _"I'm sorry." He tried to think of a good explanation to give that she wouldn't easily counter with entirely valid arguments, instead settling on saying nothing._

 _She placed a hand on the form, sliding it across the table towards him and spoke gently. "Then please, sign this. Think of it…think of it like we're switching places, if you don't mind taking care of business while I'm gone."_

The blade was lifted away from the grinding wheel. The smith stood, walking away to let it wind down on its own. The weapon was closely inspected for any imperfections or faults. None were found. It was as good as new. Better than, with the upgraded stats.

 _"I don't have any smithing skills." Kirito pointed out, nonetheless taking hold of the slip of paper. "But I can mind the shop, I guess."_

 _"I'll be fine." Lisbeth assured. "I'm not going to be on the vanguard. My job will be more support than anything else."_

 _Kirito nodded, accepting the offered pen and signing his name. A new shame, letting her leave for the front lines while he took care of her store, but one he could live with._

 _"Almost forgot." She fast walked over to where she'd left his sword. After another quick inspection she held it out to him. "Make sure to take care of this while I'm gone. Elucidators aren't the easiest to replace."_

 _He reached out and grasped the offered hilt but she held it fast._

 _"Whenever you're ready, PM me." She said, releasing her grip. "I'll be waiting."_

In the present, the smith finished wiping down the rapier, bringing the Lambent Light to a well-polished shine worthy of its namesake. He looked around the squat silo that was his workshop, alone, save for his memories. Kirito gave his rapier a few experimental swings, confirming that it felt just as it always had. His now experienced workmanship did a fine enough job of keeping the incalculably precious sword going.

The next several minutes were spent tidying up, putting away the tools he'd used and clearing away any dust he'd missed when he first got here. When the furnace had fizzled out and cooled he shoveled the ash out to throw away. The shovel caught the edge of the waste bin, tilting to spill its contents onto the floor. He sighed as he panned his head around to search for the broom. Finding it leaning against the wall on other side of the workshop he walked over to retrieve it, turning back only to see that he'd tracked ashen footprints in the process. With another sigh, Kirito set to work cleaning that up as well.

Once the forge was immaculate Kirito sheathed his upgraded Lambent Light on his back besides its mate and exited the workshop. The silo was connected by way of a short wooden walkway to the back of the main building, which served as both store on the first floor and Lisbeth's home on the second.

Kirito headed up the stairs to the living area. It wasn't generously sized or particularly spacious, but it had a lived in quality that was comforting and hard to come by anymore. From the stairs was a short hallway, with a walk in closet big enough to be a storage room and the washroom on the left. On the right were two bedrooms. The larger one closer to the stairs was Lisbeth's, and the one beyond that belonged to her assistant. The combination common room, kitchen and dining area sat at the front of the house at the far end of the hall.

He opened the door into Lisbeth's room but didn't enter. Kirito was only checking to make sure everything was well kept, not stepping in any farther than the doorway. Going inside always made him feel like an intruder, leaving him with a heavy sense of guilt, so outside he stayed. From the threshold he gave the room a cursory inspection. It looked like what most anyone would expect of a Japanese teenage girl's room, except adapted for the medieval European setting. There was a large bed covered in pink frilly blankets sitting under a coat of arms bearing a warhammer. On the small table under the window sat a collection of framed photographs, each with her posing with various friends. The other bedroom door opened, and Kirito instinctively turned towards it.

In the other doorway stood Lisbeth, her expression blank but disappointment evident in her tone. "You should have come with me."

His breath caught in his throat as his pulse spiked. Kirito backed a step away, averting his gaze to the floor. "I know."

"I'm sorry, I don't understand." She said in a voice that was not Lisbeth's.

Kirito lifted his head to face her. In Lisbeth's place stood her assistant. A young NPC woman with the generic body model of a fifteen year old. She had a cute albeit forgettable face and straight brown hair that reached just above her shoulders. She wore the same waitress outfit that Lisbeth had always worn. Lisbeth had hired her about a year after the game started, somewhere around three years ago. This meant she should appear eighteen, but since Aincrad didn't account for the body's growth over time she would keep her current size and proportions indefinitely.

She wasn't unlike a player in that regard. The game had started when Kirito was fourteen. Even though he was now eighteen he would be trapped in his original younger body until either he died or the world ended. Kirito sometimes wondered what it might be like if we ever woke up. Would he be taller now, waking in a by now unfamiliar body, or would four years in a coma have stunted his growth?

"What did you say?" Kirito asked the drone.

"I asked if you were finished with the forge, and if you wanted me to clean it." She repeated. NPC or not his reaction to her appearance was not lost on her. "Are you well?"

"Yes, I'm done." Kirito answered. "No, I already took care of it, and I'm fine."

"Alright." She slipped past him to head downstairs.

Despite Kirito and Lisbeth's arrangement, the NPC managed the estate more than he ever had. Originally hired by Lisbeth, Hanna Heinemann was responsible for manning the shop during the day as well as cleaning the house she'd shared with her owner. She could also cook reasonably well if anyone asked her to. The only thing she did not do was forge, as the NPC had no skill for it. If she could it would have rendered Kirito's joint ownership of the establishment entirely redundant. In a certain sense, she would actually have more seniority at the store, had she been human.

Even though he knew the living space would already be well kept as long as Hanna was around, Kirito felt obligated to check over everything to make sure. The storage room smelled of aging leather and stagnant air, having no windows. The washroom, like most in Aincrad, was simple. It contained only a shower and a sink under the vanity, since nobody in the game produced any bodily waste. It smelled of lemon scented cleaning solution and the floor in the shower was wet near the drain.

The kitchen was stocked with fresh food he'd brought along to drop off. There were no stores or reliable sources of food for Hanna to shop at in Lindarth anymore, so he had to bring her supplies every once in a while. Even as an NPC Hanna had the need to eat, and if she got hungry enough she would quit her job and leave. With no players around to observe her this would certainly cause her to de-spawn.

SAO didn't run the entire map perpetually. There was simply too much ground to process at once. Instead, the system loaded areas in chunks whenever there was anyone around, with areas farther away in visual range partially loaded in with less detail. Any lack of detail would be attested to distance. The effect was seamless, with nobody ever feeling or noticing that they were in anything less than a full living world.

With no players in or around a town or in visual range, an area would cease to exist, being saved to an archived state and reloaded the next time anyone was nearby. Normally that would mean that the town of Lindarth would only exist so long as Kirito was present, and would return to the ether once he was far enough away. All the NPCs therein would also vanish with it, reloading or respawning whenever he visited.

Lindarth had become an exception, however. Though there were not many left, any NPC that was an escort, companion follower or employee, or was in some way directly tied to a player became a persistent entity. The result was that instead of de-spawning with the town when Kirito left, Hanna remained active, and by extension so did Lindarth.

As she had been active since she'd been hired by Lisbeth, Hanna retained her personality where other NPCs would have lost it due to reloading with less system resources devoted to convincing the only player around. Where most NPCs anymore only existed for as long as anyone lingered around them, Hanna had operated continuously for around three years, two of which had been for the most part alone. Her employment at the store was the only thing keeping the persistent version of her, for lack of a more fitting word, alive. If Hanna had been capable of comprehending her personal prison Kirito would have felt quite sorry for her, or at the very least regarded her as a kindred spirit.

The dining table had seating for four, but the grooves in the floor attested to only one chair ever being used. In the sink was a single plate and set of silverware, signs of a meal eaten alone. These were not his dishes. By the lingering smell Kirito guessed she'd eaten while he was working in the forge. He headed for the stairs, pausing as he passed by Hanna's room.

He never checked the NPC's room. There was never any reason to. If she kept the estate in good condition it was reasonable to assume her quarters would be as well, and it wouldn't matter either way if it wasn't. This time, the door was ajar. Satisfying a passing curiosity, Kirito opened the door further and stepped in.

It was smaller than Lisbeth's room, but was by no means cramped. On the left side was a mostly empty floor to ceiling book shelf. Against the far wall under the window was a small desk with a reading lamp. To the right against the wall was a twin bed. The entire room had a somewhat rustic feel to it and was mostly barebones, as an NPC didn't have much reason to acquire or own many things.

The books that she did own were all well-worn, but in the far too uniform manner that made it clear they had been spawned in such a state and not worn by genuine use. On first glace it looked like a lived in room, but the more one dug the more it became apparent what was real and what was not. In this manner Hanna and her room were something of a microcosm of Aincrad as a whole, its quirks and falsehoods hiding under a veneer of lies. With no reason to linger, Kirito left the room without disturbing it further.

The shop was just as he'd last left it, in pristine condition. Display cases were immaculate, weapon racks were shined and the floor was free of any hint of dirt or debris. Not a speck of dust marred any surface. Apart from Kirito and Hanna, the shop was also entirely barren. There were no weapons on the racks or in the cases. The store had nothing to sell, as there had long been nobody left to sell them to.

Kirito inspected the area anyways. He'd promised to keep the place running and he would make sure everything was in its proper place. Hanna stood behind the counter, staring blankly ahead as she cycled through precooked idle animations, waiting for customers that would never come. It occurred to Kirito that this was what she must spend every day doing. Standing behind a counter, staring at nothing and interacting with nobody before ending the day with cleaning so she could do it all again the next.

She came out of her idle state with significantly less jarring than most current NPCs when she noticed his attention. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"No, everything's fine." He replied, returning to his inspection.

Having already interacted with him she did not return to her idle state, instead watching him as he moved around the store. Her head slowly panned to follow him as he moved, though he tried to ignore her.

"The weather is lovely today." She stated.

Kirito didn't reply. Any conversation with the drone was a pointless effort. Hanna may have been leagues away smarter than any newly spawned NPC, but it wouldn't take long for her to either lead into endless loops of the same statements or dead ends. In some ways Hanna was more unsettling than other, more lifeless drones. She had just enough artificially hinted humanity to not be immediately off-putting, but was lacking enough that time spent around her grew more and more uncomfortable as the façade became apparent. Hanna had become a permanent denizen of the uncanny valley.

"Are you sure there's nothing I can help you with?" It asked again.

"I'm sure." Kirito was finished here, anyways. "I'm headed out."

"Goodbye, then." She smiled cheerfully, as if she wasn't about to be left alone for another indeterminate amount of time to repeat her daily, identical cycles.

Kirito exited the shop through the front door, drawing the attention of Yonaka and his horse waiting nearby. He left them be, making a quick detour around the side of the building. In the yard was the other reason for his visit, a slab of solid steel jutting out of the ground. Kirito would have placed it in the shade offered by the large apple tree in the front yard, but didn't want any fallen fruit to mar its surface.

He rested a hand on the metal headstone. "Everything's still the way you left it."

With all the politics and infighting, most people shied away from the clearing groups for quite some time. In the nearly five months between his unmasking of Kayaba and the time Lisbeth joined the Broken Oath they'd only moved up one floor. Eventually they had been able to get moving again, for better or worse. From the reports sent down it seemed like every floor was worse than the last.

To her credit, the blacksmith turned frontliner had done better than expected, frequently outperforming her stronger and higher leveled comrades. Her unrelenting drive, staunch commitment to the cause and surprising skill with her war hammer had earned her a great deal of respect within the Broken Oath. Unfortunately, this would prove to be her undoing. In recognition of her abilities, Lisbeth was moved from her support role to the forward scouts.

After a disastrous battle and a pyrrhic victory against the boss of the seventy eighth floor Lisbeth was offered a place in the core boss clearing group. Kirito had insisted she refuse it, but there was no swaying her. She had been present for the initial defeat of the Vasiliás Fídi, and was instrumental in the victory against the Soulthresher, boss of the eightieth.

It was on the eighty first that she and several others had met their end. Elishandra the Plaguebearer, a boss Kirito had no intention of ever facing. From what he'd read it was a ten legged fusion of a house sized spider and winged dragon that constantly expelled a cloud of toxic gas and fought with long, poisoned claws. Simply being near it was enough to wear on your health if one hadn't taken the necessary precautions, a significant problem in a game where the effective options for ranged fighting were severely limited.

The Knights of the Broken Oath had not expected a foe of this type, as the rest of the floor had a fairly consistent ice based theme. The clearing group was nearly wiped out. When the battle went south and defeat was inevitable, the story went that Lisbeth had selflessly charged back into the fight as a sacrificial distraction so that the surviving members of the party could escape. Out of a clearing group of thirty two, Thinker, Yulier and four others escaped. If they were to be believed, Lisbeth was still battering it with her hammer as the noxious cloud drained her life away.

It was a noble idea, one valiantly sacrificing herself for the good of the many. A story to cushion the blow to moral. A way for her friends to perhaps soften and temper their grief with pride at her heroic actions. Kirito didn't know whether or not he believed the report, but he'd resented the Broken Oath ever since.

"I should have been there with you." Kirito said softly, hand still on the headstone.

It was entirely possible he would only have died alongside her, but that much more appealing than knowing she'd died alone.

"I'll visit again soon." He said, lifting his hand and turning away.

A whistle brought Yonaka to his side and he brought Horse along by the reigns. Kirito began his walk to the town teleporter. As far as towns went, Lindarth was one of the more visually appealing. The weather was almost always that of a warm spring day. The houses and shops were all well spaced out, with large yards and plenty of open ground. The land itself was covered in rich green grass speckled with a variety of small wild flowers. Scattered trees provided shade or fruit along the cobblestone roads. A river entered the town from the north, splitting into innumerable canals that ran all throughout the area, powering the water wheels connected to most shops.

Despite its rural and natural atmosphere Lindarth was a production town, and it had been one of the very best. The water wheels were a convenient source of power, and property here was costly. One had to be a rather wealthy and successful craftsman to be able to afford a plot here, and in time owning a shop in Lindarth became a sign of quality and achievement as higher end producers gravitated here. Eventually there had been enough of them that there was nowhere left for the stock NPCs to live, apart from the employees and assistants that lived with them like Hanna. Before anyone had noticed it, Lindarth had been fully gentrified into a player owned town.

It was, in a word, lovely. An ideal place to live in a relatively safe area on the forty eighth floor. The most dangerous thing anyone could expect anywhere around were perhaps wild boars and wolves in the fields, and those were more useful than threatening. The town didn't even have an outer wall. A regrettable design flaw.

As Kirito strolled towards the center of town, he looked over the standing buildings. There was an armourer that had specialized in heavy plate. Jerek, Kirito believed his name had been, or had it been Jerod? His shop as it was had an empty frame where one would expect a front door, and all the windows had been broken outwards. The last shutter left on the side of the house flapped softly against the side in the gentle breeze.

Farther down the road was a greenhouse whose rare plants and herbs had been used for potion ingredients. Half of the glass structure was collapsed, and with nobody to tend them vines grew wildly in all directions from it, having strangled all the other flora in their expansion. Directly across the street was where her main customer had lived. A potion maker whose home and workshop were in fairly good condition, save for the pair of jagged round holes the size of a human head near the top of the side facing west.

Kirito paused as he arrived at the central park. Nearby was a non-specific church that had been repurposed as a townhouse once it had been acquired by a human player. The stained glass windows were all shattered and the bell tower was destroyed. The mass of brass as tall as Kirito that was the bell was embedded in the roof, jutting down through the ceiling. Every time Kirito visited he curiously checked inside to see if it had fallen through yet.

Farther down the street to the south was the remains of another generously sized structure. There was one corner and two walls left standing. The rest of what looked like a small factory was a pile of splintered wood and chunks of broken stone. Kirito couldn't remember what it used to be. He thought a moment, the dead town silent save for the passing breeze and the chirping of birds. He scratched at his chin, trying to picture what it had used to look like. He vaguely remembered it had a pleasing smell, but couldn't place it.

"They made spices." She told him when it was clear he wasn't going to figure it out.

Right, now he remembered. In SAO, the cheaper foodstuffs were able to sate one's hunger, but were almost universally unappealing. Most were bland or tasteless. Higher end food and spices that were actually enjoyable were commodities that were always in demand, and Sylvain's Spicehouse had been one of best producers of the latter. The factory wasn't even where he'd sold most of his goods. Sylvain had been successful enough that he'd expanded from a humble one man operation to a larger production facility that sold spices and seasoning to various overpriced stores and restaurants throughout Aincrad. From the Town of Beginnings to the highest floor, the golden trident pictured on his seal was a mark of quality and taste. Always high in demand, exorbitant in price and short in supply.

Kirito recalled seeing a few small containers of the stuff in Asuna's pantry more than once, not that she needed the help. Trying to decipher the ingredients and recreate the concoctions had been a passing interest of hers, due to the scarcity and price of the product. Of course, supply had been somewhat non-existent since Sylvain died.

He didn't acknowledge the helpful voice, instead tapping his fist into the back of his head until he was alone again.

Ready to leave, Kirito approached the teleporter that sat in the center of a picturesque park at the dead middle of the town. He gave one last panning glance over the remains of Lindarth. Apart from the archway and Lisbeth's store, nothing else was undamaged or unbroken. The former due to town gateways being indestructible, and the latter due to weeks of dedicated restoration.

His destination was keyed in and the gateway sparked into life. Kirito stepped through, leaving the shattered ghost town and its single artificial inhabitant behind.

* * *

Author's Notes: Mixed up the flashback and present scenes together to make Lisbeth's reveal something that wasn't immediately obvious, or uncertain until we stayed in one time. Something of an experiment in combined scenes in the same location. Little more explanation for Agil going on a crusade. Bit more world building, albeit a broken world.

Thanks for reading.


	6. Solipsism

_"The council took some convincing, but in light of recent events surrounding the complete and utter failure of the Grand Aincrad Hunt we have no other choice. As of today, floors sixty and below are to be considered enemy territory. All Knights of the Broken Oath not already on the front lines have been recalled and evacuated, and no one is to return to these floors without express orders. Furthermore, no one is to travel anywhere unless in a squad of six humans or more. We simply cannot and must not engage the Coffin in open war. I still believe the best way to beat them is to beat the game. So long as we maintain our focus we can stay ahead of them. Still, I cannot deny that abandoning the lower floors to their fate weighs heavily upon me."_

 _-Thinker's journal, entry 216-_

* * *

He was almost there, he could feel it. It was just a matter of figuring out where exactly he was going. Riding along on his horse at a casual pace, Kirito panned his head back and forth, scanning the landscape through a set of binoculars. With his other hand he held a sheet of thick parchment, hanging from his grip like an unfurled scroll. A pseudo hand drawn map he'd purchased from one of the rare useful NPCs in town. He held it beside his open menu's map, comparing the two while searching for identifiable landmarks.

This was taking much longer than he'd anticipated. Kirito was heading south by southwest, and the sun had been to his right for longer than not. He'd been unable to find an NPC to purchase the area's topographic data to update his system map. All he'd been able to locate was the physical map, which was drawn in a very general fashion, with detail only given to larger or more notable landmarks. His menu's map of the immediate area was mostly dark, the area unexplored by him. It filled in as he traveled, bit by bit.

His menu's map could be zoomed out to display the entirety of this floor and all that he'd explored of it, but the physical map he'd purchased only covered a much smaller area. The thing didn't even tell him how much ground it covered. There was no grid to it nor any real legend, save for the compass in the bottom right and a short line to measure distances. The former only had the south arrow marked, and the gauge for distance wasn't labeled at all. It could have been for kilometers, miles, or even something like leagues or versts for all he knew. So far he had not unveiled enough to show any shared points of interest save for Yuleden.

The location of Kamen' Nora, the final town of the eighty third floor, wasn't even located on either of his maps. Instead, all he had to go on was an arrow scribbled on the purchased item pointing to a large area southwest of Yuleden composed of jagged grey splotches, which he had to guess were boulders or some other fashion of stone. Inside that was a circle. Come to think of it, the map didn't have any words or anything written on it save for the S for south on the compass. Not very promising, but he'd explored enough of the rest of this floor to feel confident he was on the right track. Still, not for the first time he wished he could have simply purchased the map data from someone in the clearing groups. Missed opportunities.

The terrain wasn't helping much, either. There weren't any serious obstructions, but he was surrounded on all sides by rolling hills that dipped and crested with enough difference that even sitting on his horse Kirito could only really see about fifty meters ahead of him unless they were atop one of the hills. It had become incredibly annoying to see the ground lazily bobbing up and down around him as he traveled, like he was riding a boat on green, slow-moving waters.

The reigns of his horse were tugged at, bringing the beast of burden to a halt at the apex of one of the countless hills. From the better vantage point he did another search through his binoculars. A glance at the sun dipping towards the horizon confirmed he was running out of daylight. He'd either need to return to Yuleden soon or stay in the field overnight. He was leveled well enough that sleeping outside the town should be relatively safe. Probably. That, and the idea of making the four hour trip back to Yuleden after spending the day accomplishing nothing but filling in some of his map was irritating enough to make him decide to keep moving.

If he pushed Horse and outran any mobs he could probably shave it down to about three. He could use one of his teleport crystals to jump back to town, but they were costly enough not to waste on something so trivial, and it would a while to get back to where he was now tomorrow morning, anyways.

 _Wonder what sort of name Kamen' Nora is, anyways_. Names in Aincrad could be borrowed from any language, or were parts of words or references, usually tied to the flavor of the city. A town with a Germanic name might have appropriate architecture and NPCs with names to match. Still, some were just made up words with no meaning. The only reason he thought about this one at all was because it was two words, which normally meant it was actually taken from something.

A glint of light off of something in the distance caught his eye as he was panning the binoculars across the horizon. Focusing on it, he could see what looked like a thin column or spire, capped with an amber gem or crystal that must have been half as tall as he was. It was the crystal that caught the dying light. He couldn't tell how large the spire was, since he could not see the bottom behind the hills, but he estimated it reached up a few stories higher than he was now.

Confused, he compared his physical and virtual maps again, but there were no structures noted on the former between Yuleden and the estimated location of Kamen' Nora. In fact, if the distance gauge on the map was kilometers, he should have arrived at a green line on the map by now, which he assumed was trees. He'd never been there before, so it was still uncharted territory in the latter. He sat higher on his horse, craning his head around to try and see any tree line or anything else. Nothing but the hills presented themselves.

Map reading was not a skill anyone expected to need when playing an MMO, but here he was. Another small reason to curse Kayaba's name.

His decision made, he adjusted course towards the structure, heading southeast. It was only about a twenty minute trot away, and was at least a point of reference. Maybe he could find some clues there, or climb to the top for a better view.

 _A night in the field it is._ He sighed. A flash of movement in the bottom edge of his binoculars snapped his attention to an approaching pack of field volk between him and the spire. Volk were much like wolves, except not. They were thrice the size of any real world canine, and their thick fur was so densely matted with dirt and mud that it formed what might as well have been slabs of armour. There was also the fact that their muzzles ended in pointed beaks, each paw had two opposable thumbs, one on either side, and that they had four magenta eyes, the top two of which glowed in the dark. With the sun setting, eight pair of glistening pink eyes approached him.

 _I guess it's been a while since I've run across anything_. It had indeed been a smooth day. Boring, even. He drew his horse to a stop and dismounted, unsheathing his Elucidator. The weapon was pointed to his panther, then to his ride. "Yonaka: guard."

The cat dutifully took its place at Horse's side, alert and ready. That taken care of, Kirito rushed off to engage the volk. Best to do it before they got anywhere near his mount, lest any slipped past him and left him without a ride. He left his treasured lambent light in its place on his back; minor encounters were not worth putting any undue wear on it. Instead he drew a throwing knife from one of the slots on the sheath on his lower back.

As he crested the next hill he re-spotted the incoming volk and made a minor course correction to meet them head on. There were indeed four of them. He spun out of the way of the lead creature's attack as it snapped its beak at him, charging past him, then side stepped to avoid the pounce of the second. The third was more careful, coming in slower and swiping at him with its paws, left then then right. These he avoided by taking a couple quick steps back to keep from being surrounded and overwhelmed while at the same time twisting so that he was presenting his right side to the beast's attacks, then bent and contorted in either direction away from the incoming talons.

Other players might have preferred to use a shield, or developed the simple brute strength needed to physically overpower their opponents, but Kirito had always erred on the side of speed and agility. After four years in Aincrad, he didn't so much dodge away from danger as he danced around it. He might not be able to wrestle an enemy into submission as easy as others, nor could he tank as many hits, but then again, actually hitting him was something few things were capable of accomplishing on their own.

As the forth volk came far out and around to his right, intending to flank him as he backed away from the other three, Kirito didn't dodge it's charge, but instead leap upwards while sending his body parallel to the ground and spinning so that it passed beneath him as it lunged, his sword slicing along its back as it did so. Kirito has just alighted back to his feet when the first volk slammed its beak into his side, sending him staggering hard enough for the third to score a hit with its claws.

Unfortunately for Kirito, Aincrad was never intended to be played solo, and there was something to be said for the advantage of numbers. The higher the floor, the more apparent this became. Not for the first time Kirito lamented his lonesome state. Even field mobs were something to be taken seriously this high up in new territory. So take this seriously he did.

The knife in his off hand was sent singing through the air as he let it fly, straight into the second volk's glowing left eye. It produced a pained, birdlike screech, shaking its head and cancelling its own attack. He rolled away from the fourth volk, coming back up to is his feet while thrusting his sword through the head of the first. After narrowly dodging another salvo of swipes, Kirito held the fingers of his left hand to his lips and blew a piercing high note. That completed, another dagger was pulled and set loose, into the knee joint of the nearest beast's right front leg, hobbling the limb's mobility.

The volk was still in the process of trying to bite onto the knife's handle to wrench it free when a black, feline blur leapt onto it, dive tackling it from the side and sending the two of them into a conjoined tumble. One of the volk directed its attention to its uninjured pack mate and uttered a series of high pitched chirrups, identifying itself as the pack leader as the commanded volk split off to attack Yonaka.

Down to a two on one fight, everything became much easier. First, Kirito set his sights on the pack leader, but before that he charged at the other volk that had remained to fight him, the one with the throwing knife still lodged in one of its night seeing eyes. Its snapping beak was deftly dodged, and a second knife was sunk into its other magenta eye. It flailed away from him, blindly swiping at nothing. Its lower pair of eyes were not suited for the darker hours.

Now at a one on one fight, Kirito drew yet another knife in a reverse grip. The beast struck first. What followed was a blur of motion as Kirito was able to give the creature his undivided attention. Within the next second he delivered three strokes of his sword, the last of which removed its right foreleg. The next swing rebounded off of its hardened, matted armour, chipping dried earth and clumps of hair. Another dodge and a thrust, the point of his blade finding its place between the plates, pulled back before they could pinch together and arrest it. A pommel strike cracked its snapping beak, and another broke off a jagged chunk. A desperate swipe with its remaining front paw was answered by a quartet of rapid jabs with the knife, followed finally by a hardy thrust of his Elucidator, plunging it into its head, entering under the cheekbones, continuing up along its throat and only stopping when he felt it clink against the armour at its shoulders from the inside.

The fatal blow struck, the volk expired without further ado. Dealing with the half blinded volk was significantly faster. By the time he was moving to assist his pet, the panther was already finishing off one of its own, having torn enough chunks of earthen armour and wads of fur from the volk to dig into the softer flesh beneath. At that point it was just a matter of mopping up what was left.

Once the battle was finished, Kirito summoned a chunk of the volk meat that had been dropped and offered it to his pet. Feeding it would help boost the recovery rate from any health lost in the fight. Yonaka bit into the meat, chewed twice, and then slowly pushed it out of its mouth with its tongue in apparent disgust.

She gave a hungry grumbling growl in compliant.

"Fine, then." Kirito summoned something more appetizing with a few button presses, a whole quail. It was devoured with significantly more gusto.

Kirito had tried before to get it to drink health potions or to eat food infused with the drink, but like any pet it had an ingrained hatred of medicine. He also didn't like to have to use the cat in combat like this. It was a reminder that he was not as untouchable or invulnerable as he'd like to be. That, and the cat had been enough of a hassle to rear that he didn't want to replace it if he could avoid it. This just strengthened his resolve to become stronger, faster, better.

Its meal finished, Yonaka bumped its muzzle into his gut. Kirito almost patted its head, returning the affection but stopped himself, lowing his hand to his side. Instead he pointed back towards his mount.

"Yonaka: follow." It was better not to get attached. Things died when that happened. Even if it lived long enough to see the end of the game it's not like it would survive it.

With the panther trailing after him, Kirito started back towards his horse. If he'd been the type to try and humanize the denizens of Aincrad, he might have thought the cat looked dejected. The mount hadn't moved from where he'd left it, though it brayed in agitation as he got close, irritated at being left without any protection. Yonaka yowled in reply, and the two animals turned to face him. Kirito frowned and moved to his horse's side. This was not a conversation he cared to participate in.

He was just starting to pull himself up onto the saddle when he caught another glimmer of movement, this time behind them, back towards Yuleden. Kirito paused, peering at the rolling hills for what he thought he might have seen, but nothing was moving. The binoculars were pulled from the saddlebag he'd stowed them in to give the area behind them a thorough survey. Nothing.

Five minutes were spent making absolutely sure there was nothing before he was satisfied. Pulling himself back onto the saddle, Kirito nudged the horse along.

Still, living in Aincrad tended to instill a certain measure of extra caution. "Yonaka: rear guard. Range: medium. Secondary conditional: return if attacked."

The cat dutifully split off to comply with his commands. Companions were capable of comprehending more natural language and in most cases responded more positively to it, but Kirito found it was best to use a tool as efficiently as possible. The fewer words exchanged between command and action, the better.

They were almost there. The structure was just past the next hill, situated somewhere in the valley between two of them. As the sunset deepened, Kirito scrunched his eyes shut and gave a long, wide mouthed yawn. It had been a long day exploring the field, and he was getting tired. The fight with the volk had been a welcome bit of action, but had done little to really excite him.

He wiped at his eyes, opening them to catch a flash of motion on the edge of his vision. A glimmer of white.

Snapping to, Kirito rolled off his mount, landing on his feet and drawing both his swords in one fluid motion.

 _Dammit, cat!_ He searched around for whatever had managed to sneak up on him. Horse brayed, worried at his sudden shift and coming to a confused halt when it realized it had lost its rider.

Another glimpse off something to his left, a white dress and auburn hair fluttering in a breeze that wasn't there, a figure that was gone by the time he turned its way. The phantom had come to be something he recognized. It was a thing best ignored. Sheathing his swords one after the other, he rubbed his palm against the back of his skull.

Looking around himself, Kirito stood at the peak of the hill beside the structure. It was only about ten minutes' walk away, not worth getting back on his horse. He began to raise his lips to give a whistle with the intention of calling his cat back to guard his horse, but stopped himself. Maybe it was just his head, but something was beginning to bother him.

From his current location, he could see the entirety of the structure. It was a large two story complex the size of a warehouse, made of grey stone blocks. An elaborate tomb, by the look of it. In the center was a rotunda making up a third story, and atop that sat the spire, reaching up a few more until it ended at the gem that was still shining, capturing the last rays of sunlight. Part of the building were partially collapsed to the point that it was probably more accurate to describe the place as ruins. Milling around the front and rear entrances were collections of beastmen of decidedly ursine composition, still too far away to care about him at all.

Sensing no immediate threat, Kirito worked his way around to face the front, still keeping the same distance. There was some faded text carved into the stone above the doors, but he couldn't make it out at this distance. His menu was waved open, but the building had yet to appear on it; he hadn't gotten close enough or observed it closely enough for the system to consider it properly discovered.

The physical map that had become less useful as the day went by was inspected again as well, but no such structure was depicted south of Yuleden. Patting himself down, he sighed as he realized he'd left his binoculars in his saddlebag, and instead summoned a small collapsible pocket telescope. He squinted into it as he tried to read what was left of the stone markings.

"Os…Ostal…" He tried to sound out the stone carved text. Whatever it was it was written in English text, but wasn't any English words he knew. It was probably something else that had been romanized, but the letters didn't spell out anything recognizable in Japanese and there were no nearby logographic symbols.

He summoned a pencil and compared the two maps again, drawing a line onto where he should be based on his position on the system's map. According to the physical map, he was still in the green line forest. There were no trees anywhere to be seen.

With a huff of steadily growing frustration, he peered into the looking glass again. "Ostal…nyye?"

"Ostal'nyye Rasputina." Came the soft, feminine voice from directly over his shoulder, jovially enunciating the foreign tongue with a sloppy, mock Russian accent.

Kirito ducked his head as he leaped away, giving a surprised yelp in reply. Thankfully, he was able to stay his hands, saving himself the embarrassment of drawing his weapon when he knew nothing was there. He turned his eyes downwards to his feet, refusing to look at her. Come to think of it, for all the times she'd haunted him he'd never looked at her face. Not that he needed to to know who it was, or who it was supposed to be.

"Wrong way. Turn round." Despite the sun having set, her white dress shimmered, as if emitting its own light.

He needed to focus on something else. Anything else. The map became his anchoring point, grasped firmly in both hands. _Go away_.

With his eyes wrenched shut he repeated the command. _Goawaygoawaygoaway._

The specter gave a longsuffering sigh, but was thankfully otherwise silent. After almost a minute, Kirito finally peaked out of one eye to confirm it was gone. That was perhaps not the most apt choice of words, as he knew it had never been there to begin with.

 _Okay, then,_ back to the immediate concern of his unhelpful map, _where the hell on this thing is this Ostalne Ras-_

 _"_ Ostal'nyye Rasputina _."_ Came the whisper just in front of him _._ The breath caught in his lungs. That voice. _Her_ voice. She was much closer now, standing within arm's reach. She softly grasped his hands, cradling them in her own. "Turn it round."

Kirito wanted to jolt away, to put any amount of distance between them but found himself transfixed. His hands were gently guided by hers, slowly rotating the map until it was upside down.

She released him, withdrawing and moving away. "There."

Her objective completed, she vanished. The breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding was released in a few short sobs as tears obscured his vision. Odd as it was, the only thing more painful than the specter's unwanted visits was when she left him alone again. What was more troubling was that its appearances were becoming more invasive, albeit helpful on occasion. Wiping his face, he tried to get back to the matter at hand. The map was indeed upside down, with the 'S' on the legend now pointing north.

His menu's map was summoned again and he compared the two once more. There was a new landmark visible on the display, and when he tapped his finger on it a pop up appeared with its name, confirming it as Ostal'nyye Rasputina. With the physical map now upside down, he could see there was indeed a nondescript grey square in the bottom left, in the north east.

 _Wait._ He narrowed his eyes, putting the pieces together. The name Rasputin, the mock accent from his vision, and the map turned around so that the south arrow now pointed the wrong way. _Waiiiit._

The menu was tabbed over to his inventory, and he scrolled down to a small collection of softcover books. Once he'd selected the right one it appeared in his waiting hand. As a game with a European fantasy slant to it as well as being designed for eventual release to a world market, the default written language of Aincrad was English, but it was not uncommon for items or locations to borrow words or names from other languages.

The Russian to English dictionary was not a very large book, only about the span of his palm and a couple inches thick, but its almost illegibly fine print was extensive enough to be useful. He had a few of the little books in his inventory and more at home for several other languages he'd come across. After opening it and turning several pages, he slid a finger down the entries until he found what he was looking for.

 _Sever_ , he tapped the page, then slid his finger to the right as he read the rest out loud, "Russian word for north."

A few more agitated taps, and he searched for a couple more words, putting together Kamen' Nora. _Stone Burrow._

His frustration building, he flipped to another page. _Volk: Wolf_

He'd been going the wrong way, following a Russian map that he'd been holding upside down the entire time, and his only hints that he'd been doing so were that the letter 'S' was on the wrong point of the legend's compass, the names of nearby ruins he might find if he had indeed been going the wrong way and of his destination.

The last several hours had been a complete waste. His true destination was in the north east, in the complete opposite direction. It'd take the next three or four hours just to get back to his starting point in Yuleden. Zooming out his menu map until it was of a comparable size to the physical copy, he rechecked the legend's distance measurement to at least try and figure out how far he was supposed to be going. Summoning a specialized hand tool useful for converting and calculating such figures, he calibrated it to kilometers, then started cycling through the other options until he found one that matched.

 _Border versts?_ The tool was returned to his inventory. The archaic, obscure Russian unit of measurement was equal to a little more than two kilometers for every border verst. He had twice as far to travel as he'd hoped. _Seriously? God damn border versts?_

In normal MMOs, or even most video games in general, important locations were not too far apart. Two towns might only be separated by a distance that could be calculated in minutes. Of course, player characters in standard, non fulldive games usually walked at a not so casual pace of fifty to sixty kilometers per hour. Here in Aincrad he moved about as fast as was humanly normal for the most part, and towns were much, much farther apart. Both could be attributed to realism, though one could argue that it was horrible game design to have to walk for multiple hours, covering several kilometers in what was supposed to be a leisurely hobby. One might have initially assumed this was to pad the game length, but with how Aincrad had turned out, Kirito had no doubt it was both for realism, and as a slap in the face against player's expectations of the world operating like any familiar game.

He sank to his knees, rocking back into a sitting position and letting his legs flop out in front of him as he gave a tired sigh.

 _I hate this game._ Kirito raised a hand towards the sky with a single digit fully extended, as though cursing some higher power, which in Aincrad was not entirely inaccurate. "Fuck you, Kayaba."

There was no point wasting any more time here, especially when he had so much farther to go. Pocketing the rolled up map for the time being, Kirito pulled himself to his feet and dejectedly shambled back over to his horse. Once he was back in the saddle, he used his system menu to reconfirm the direction back to Yuleden; Aincrad didn't even allow the use of waypoints on your HUD. Another thing taken for granted in any other game missing from SAO.

It was getting darker as the last vestiges of sunlight slipped below the horizon as dusk finally turned to night. The sky was overcast, obscuring the stars and moon, though thankfully it did not look like rain was in the forecast. Dark enough that he didn't want any volk sneaking up on him.

Kirito could see reasonably well in the dark, but he had something with him that could see even better. Pressing his fingers to his lips, he recalled his pet with another whistle. After a few seconds, there was no sign of the beast. He peered in the direction that he'd last sent it, but saw nothing. He was just beginning to consider another call, or to check his map for its location when he impulsively craned his head around to scan the immediate area for anything else that might be out here. That's when he spotted her.

Yonaka had circled around behind him to his right side, trying to sneak up on him, her pitch black form hugging the ground. Sensing that she'd been discovered, the cat stood to its regular height and padded up to him, bopping its muzzle into his leg in congratulations for having won whatever game it had been playing with him.

Kirito made no acknowledgement of this. The cat's more playful habits could at times be vexing, but he figured it would be pointless to try and break her of them. If anything that might make the animal resent him, and he needed her obedient. Better to just ignore these traits, worry about it if they ever actually became a problem.

He pointed in front of himself in the direction of Yuleden. "Yonaka: scout. Short range. Sneak. Secondary conditional: cry out if engaged."

With what was almost a nod the cat obeyed, disappearing into the night before him to act as both an extra set of eyes and warning system. At his direction, Horse began their trip once more, giving a tired huff in agitation. The beast of burden had been carrying him all day as they'd explored the area. They'd stop for a break once they'd at least gotten back to Yuleden.

It was twenty minutes on that a roaring yowl from Yonaka prompted him to dismount and help deal with a trio of field volk, and then again another half an hour after that to deal with another pack of four. The animals were more aggressive at night, and would seek him out from greater distances. An hour later the rumbling in his gut grew loud enough to remind him that he'd forgotten to eat supper, so he drew his horse to a stop so he could get off and eat a quick snack. While it was impossible to vomit in Aincrad, eating on horseback still made him nauseous all the same. Despite his growing hunger, Kirito only ate half a meal bar, giving the rest to his horse. They could have a more full meal once they'd returned to Yuleden.

It was a slog, but they eventually made it. If anything, the frequent attacks from the volk at least kept him awake. Still, the trip took longer than he'd anticipated, and it was shortly after midnight by the time they ambled back through the open gates of Yuleden. The town was dead, but at this point it was getting hard to tell between day and nighttime amounts of activity when both could be described as null. The important difference was that everything was closed for the night. With nowhere to buy a fresh meal from he sated himself on another meal bar, letting Yonaka wander off to satisfy herself on whatever vermin she could hunt nearby. A bag of feed and a bucket of water from the town well were enough for his mount.

Kirito plopped down on a bench near the well in the town's center, munching idly on the last few bites of his belated supper. It was a bar of hardtack, a little too tuff and on the bland side, but they were easy to make and the ingredients were cheap. Kirito had never had much skill with cooking, neither in the real nor in Aincrad. The most he'd done with the bar of hardtack was to try and mitigate its toughness with a little molasses, and improve its flavor with a touch of honey. Asuna had always been the cook, and ever since he'd lost her he'd mostly either eaten out or made the simplest things he could.

Back to square one from where he'd initially embarked from at the beginning of the day. He considered getting a room for the night. He could even teleport somewhere nicer if he felt like sleeping elsewhere. Pretty much no matter where he went was guaranteed to be empty. One of the small benefits of living in a world already finished with its death throes and settling into rigor mortis was the lack of lines. It's the little things that make life worth continuing.

Rolling the last bite around in his mouth, Kirito leaned back in the bench and directed his eyes up at the starless, cloudy sky. He was almost at the end of this floor, but there was still so much more world to go through. And then what? Floor bosses were designed to be fought by large groups of players, not individuals. Why would Kayaba be any different? The only reason he could beat bosses like the Vasiliás Fídi was because he put it off until he was heavily over leveled for the floor it was located on, and even then it still gave him trouble. He'd been arrogant enough to believe he could take Kayaba by himself the first time, and everyone he'd cared for had suffered because of it. With a bit of effort he pushed the thought from his mind. Best to worry about that when he was close enough for it to matter. He still had seventeen floors left to go after this one.

"Should get some sleep." Kirito impulsively rubbed at the back of his skull, trying his best to ignore her. He could sense she was sitting on the bench beside him, but he refused to look at her. "It's late."

Finished resting, Kirito took to his feet, taking hold of Horse's reigns to lead it towards the northern gate. He'd been considering sleeping here, but her reappearance made the notion unappealing. She was hard enough to dispel when he was awake, and he was worried that if he nodded off she'd just haunt his dreams. He called out for his cat with a whistle and pulled himself up onto the saddle. Horse was getting tired; it had been riding all day, but he still had some mileage left in him if they took things slow.

Looking around for his cat, he noticed the specter was still present, standing next to the bench. Curiously, she wasn't looking at him, but was turned away from him, staring down the street. He followed her line of sight, but there was nothing of interest that way. The padding of feline feet brought his attention back around to Yonaka approaching from the opposite direction. All together, it was time to leave. Against his better judgement, he spared the vision one last glance as they left it behind to see her pointing an arm fully extended in the direction she'd been staring.

With his map now pointing him the right way and an approximate idea of what distance he had to cover, Kirito expected to get there around sunrise, depending on delays. His current pace was slow, but with his horse already a bit worn out he wanted to save any speed it had left for when he really needed it. As before, Yonaka was sent ahead as a scout, and soon he was by himself, save for his ride. Apart from three encounters within the first hour, the ride was proving much less eventful. This was good, as it meant they could make better time than having to stop to fight off a pack of mobs every so often, but this also meant it was much duller.

As boredom set in Kirito could feel his mind begin to wander. His eyes grew heavier as the night became more and more to be what anyone else would consider early morning. Trying his best to keep himself sharp, he lightly patted his cheeks and made a point to scan and rescan the horizon, stretching his back once in a while as he looked behind himself. It was on one of these rotations, having just checked to his rear, that he was turning to face forward again when he saw her. She was beside his horse, keeping pace. This was despite not being on any ride of her own, or moving her legs, or even facing the right way. She simply stood in the same spot relative to him, staring behind them.

On reflex, he followed her gaze, but like in Yuleden he saw nothing of note. His immediate reaction was to ask what she was looking at, or to tell her to go away, maybe deliver some other string of pleas or curses, but he stopped himself. That would be silly. Crazy, even. Crazy people ask questions of their hallucinations, not sane people. As a man that still liked to consider himself right minded, he said nothing, not dwelling on what sort of mental state one would have to be to see things like this in the first place. Thinking too hard on that sort of thing is how you drive yourself crazy, after all.

Instead of addressing her, he tugged on the reigns to draw his horse to a stop. Squinting his eyes, he gave the space behind them a more intense search. After almost half a minute he spotted it. Motion, not quite in the same direction she'd been facing by several degrees. Too far to know what it was. He could barely make it out at all, let alone identify it. Erring on the side of caution, he opted to give it some investigation. It was too dark to discern what it was even with the spyglass.

He'd need something else. From his saddlebags he pulled out two items. The first was a complicated wrist rocket style slingshot, with a tough metal frame and a wrist brace that sat halfway up his forearm. The other item was a sphere the size of a billiard ball made from a rough brown material that look like two halves of a large nut that had been glued back together. Calculating the distance to his target as best as he could with so little light, Kirito tweaked a dial on the side of the sling, adjusting the width of the neck and the tautness of the elastic band.

Once satisfied, he braced the slingshot on his left arm and with his right he smacked the shell against his kneecap. When nothing happened he did it again, hard enough to make him wince. At once he could hear its internal fuse light, and smoke piped out of a small pinprick vent. Loading the bullet, he pulled it back, aimed and let it fly. It sailed out of sight immediately, vanishing into the dark. A couple seconds later there was an audible pop as it burst in a conflagration that released three brilliant white flares directly over his intended target that slowly drifted downwards like fluttering leaves.

The shell had been an invention of Klein's. A bulb that contained a trio of short lasting, lightweight magnesium flares, with an internal wick ignited by a blunt shock. Each was crafted by hand manually, taking upwards of half an hour, as there were no system parameters for it as a recognized item. Technology marches ever onwards, no matter what world you live in.

As the flares drifted down he raised his spyglass again, seeing that the object of his attention was a single field volk. The animal curiously watched them descend, but Kirito was well outside its agro range and it was paying him no mind. Bit of a waste of a shell, but it was better to be safe than dead if it had been something else. Returning the items to the saddlebags, he spurred his horse back into motion, sparing a glance at his unwanted visitor. She was still there, and still staring behind them.

He scratched at the back of his skull until she left him alone.

It was another couple hours until he reached the green line on the map, which was indeed a long, narrow group of trees. Not enough to be a forest, but enough to be a landmark. It was dark enough that Kirito had needed to summon and use an oil lantern, pointing its beam of soft light ahead so he and his mount could better navigate the area. Once through, the light was doused and returned to the ether.

There had been no hostile mods in the woods, and no encounters for quite a while after. Kirito almost wished there was something just to keep him occupied. All there was to see was the current landscape, which had slowly turned from grass to barren earth and stone as they progressed, and all there was to hear was the steady rhythm of his horse's hooves and his own breathing. He closed his eyes a moment as he yawned, stretching his back as best he could while in the saddle.

Hoof beats. Breathing. Hoof beats. Breathing. Both echoing in his head as they slowly rose in pitch and tempo. The beating turned into a rolling rumble as it was joined by others until it was a constant, overwhelming din. Every few seconds there a much louder report, a deep boom in the distance ahead. Kirito grasped the lance in his right hand, holding it upright as he and the rest of the line of horsemen ascended the hill.

It was a beautiful landscape, or at least it had been. Much of this sector of the forty fourth floor was covered in lush carpets of wild flowers, and these hills were no exception, blanketed in vibrant red soltrus flowers. The midday sun high in the cloudless sky made it all the more picturesque. The Crimson Hills, as they had been called. An aptly named place for blood to be shed.

The occupants had spent much of the last day trading fire with the town of Floria, though the exchange was mostly one sided. Their siege engines had always had the superior range. Floria, the first town of the forty seventh floor was a poor position to defend, with its lack of a true outer wall, fashioned more like an aqueduct, and the grounds mostly taken up by lush gardens of flowers. Still, in a world like Aincrad even something as mundane as flowers could be a worthwhile resource. Specific varieties could be used as additives to boost their health drinks and other potions. With how open it was, it was a tempting target. As they had been shelling the town from the hill, goading the inhabitants into a fight, stirring chaos, destroying infrastructure and readying them for an assault, the horsemen had spent the night making full speed getting here from the next town over.

After all the ambushes, traps and hit and run attacks they'd suffered, it was nice to finally be on the side with the upper hand. Kirito and his fellow horsemen had numbers on their side, even bolstered by a few members of the clearing groups that had diverted down to them. The Broken Oath hadn't spare any men, but they couldn't stop anyone else from coming down here. 'Enemy territory' they called it. That was less than encouraging.

A surprise flanking maneuvre made up of cavalry is a hard thing to keep hidden for long. A loud report that shook the very air sounded at the top of the hill, accompanied by a puff of black from the device that had produced it. From it came a small object moving too fast to track and almost immediately after an explosion rocked the earth somewhere down the line to Kirito's left in a conflagration of fire and chunks of dirt thrown skyward.

At the center of the formation, Kibou blew a flat, blaring note from his war horn, signaling them to begin their charge in earnest. As one, the line of fifty seven horsemen broke into a full gallop towards the estimated thirty odd members of Laughing Coffin. Even near the right fringe, Kirito could hear Kibou's war cry, and the rest of their voices joined in. If someone had told him two months ago that this would be happening, Kirito would have laughed in their face. What a strange world to live in.

Reacting as best they could, the men on the hill tried to bring more of their primitive cannons to bear. They were simple metal tubes with thick, stub short barrels, carted along on large, spoked wooden wheels. Primitive for the real world, but top of the line in Aincrad. Another boom, another puff of smoke, and the rider three horse's to Kirito's right was sent pinwheeling as the projectile collided with his mount, stopping and toppling it as though the animal had collided with a brick wall. The fiery explosion that accompanied the impact sent the man and horse beside him over, and covered the woman to Kirito's immediate right in fire that clung to her. She was tossed from her bucking horse, screaming as she tried to extinguish herself.

Some of the oil contained in the shell had likewise landed on Kirito, dollops of the searing accelerant clinging to his right side. He ignored it, in no position to do anything about it. He glanced to his left at Klein, one of the clearing members that had come down to assist with the counterattack. Most of them were placed near the center of the formation, but Klein had insisted on staying at Kirito's side. His friend no longer wore the red, samurai themed armour he used to love. In its place was a more streamlined set of thin plates and leather coloured a deeper maroon and dark brown, respectively.

His hair had been cut short into a plainer, utilitarian style. It matched his hardened expression. He was practically a different man anymore. Kirito couldn't help but look at the necklace that jingled against his chest. Five grey glass vials the size of small inkpots strung along on a silver chain. Klein placed it inside his shirt to stop them from rattling. The two of them shared a quick glance, and as the war horn blared again the lot of them lowered their lances.

As they reached the top of the hill they were greeted by another pair of shuddering booms. One shot went wide, launching far above them. The other impacted a rider point blank, blowing through his horse's throat with such force that it was beheaded as its neck exploded violently into red and blue shards and strips of horse flesh as the system struggled to deal with impact forces from a weapon that was never intended to exist in this world. The incendiary shell, a cannon ball about ten centimeters wide continued on to burst against the rider's chest, throwing him straight back and catching three others and the gun itself in the resulting blast.

Finally, impact as their line made contact. Kirito's arm shuddered as his weapon found its mark. His lance, a three and a half meter long shaft of hardwood with a simple steel point pierced into the throat of the combatant directly in front of him, punching straight through. Of course, a lance couldn't kill most people, not with one hit anyways, even with the factors of their velocity accounted for, but they weren't supposed to. They were stakes. If you lodged a sword into a person, they could cut themselves free using the edges of the very weapon that was through them. The shafts of the spears were simple, unsharpened columns of wood, cylinders with no edges. Once stuck, the only way off of them were to either pull the weapon out of yourself, pull yourself along the weapon to one end or the other, or tear yourself apart to the sides.

Kirito leveraged the weapon, using the force of his horse and his position upon it to bring the tip of the weapon down, stabbing it into the dirt and staking the struggling man upon it in place. To his right and left, the same action was completed more often than not as other riders lanced their targets and pinned them to the ground. Many missed, while a few of their enemies were unfortunate enough to have two spears find their place in them. Their mounts and spears having served their purposes, the riders dismounted, leaping down and drawing their preferred weapons, cutting into their trapped opponents. It was a brutal display, but tactics had to adapt to the world they lived in. They couldn't afford to be forgiving or humane.

The reminaing unstuck opponents rushed at them with reckless abandon. Surprise and cavalry had both been on their side, but they were still dealing with powerful people that trained tirelessly for the sole purpose of killing other players, and they had become frighteningly good at it.

From there, everything turned to chaos.

The man on Kirito's spear was a boy that must have been two years his junior. Twelve when the game had started, now sixteen. The boy was small, rendered nearly helpless. His face was soft, marred only by the mark of the Coffin he wore etched into his forehead. A true believer. Best not to think about that now. He thrashed futilely, gasping and grasping at the spear through his throat as Kirito hacked away at him.

Suddenly, he was nearly blindsided from the right by another member of the Coffin. The man weaved his curved shamsir sabre with such skill and finesse that Kirito found himself put on the defensive even with twice as many weapons to fight with. With Kirito no longer attacking him, the man he lanced gave a furious, gurgling shout as he pulled himself to the side. The flesh of his neck stretched taut and slowly tore as he fought to free himself from his stake. With a sickening rip, he came loose, his head seated not quite right as the system reconnected his flesh with him still missing a chunk he'd left behind. Whatever he was planning to do was cut short as Klein's katana mercilessly sliced him apart without warning or mercy.

The man with the shamsir kept nicking at Kirito with the short edge of his blade. Every time he would block one of his strikes he would wind the weapon around, dealing shallow but consistent cuts. Needing more room, after blocking another strike and narrowly avoiding the winding cut, Kirito stepped back and sent a kick into the man's chest, pushing him away. Both of his swords took on an intense glow as he prepared to launch a flurry of strikes, but before that could happen Klein attacked the man from behind, kicking him in the back of the knee.

As the man faltered, Klein grabbed him by the hair, both pulling him down and tilting his head to the left. His katana was raised high in a reverse grip, and once the man was on his knees he plunged it down like a dagger into the soft flesh where the neck and shoulders met until half of his blade had disappeared inside of him. When he tried to bring his shamsir around to attack the new foe behind him, Klein released his own weapon, grabbing the arm at the wrist with one hand and halting the awkward strike. The other hand sent a palm strike that snapped the man's elbow, bending it in a way nature had not intended. He was relieved of his shamsir, and his own weapon was used to cleave his skull.

Klein pulled out his katana as the man died. He didn't bother to recover the shamsir. "You okay?"

Before Kirito could make any reply past a nod he heard a loud shout.

"To the world's end!" The distinctive cry had come from the crew of one of the remaining cannons.

Knowing they were overwhelmed, they'd tipped the weapon forward, pitching the barrel into the dirt and fired it into the earth. The explosion tore it apart and engulfed the immediate area, including the very crew that had manned it in a swath of fire that sent bodies both whole and fragmented flying in all directions. There was a meaty thud as one of them landed near Kirito. His entire being was charred and burnt, his left arm had been ripped apart from the blast, leaving the stump a mess of dangling ribbons, and the corresponding leg was bent the wrong way at the knee. Half of his face had been charred black. The mark of the Laughing Coffin was tattooed onto his throat.

And he was laughing.

A giddy, high pitched giggle. "We win!"

As the battle continued to rage around them, Klein spared him little time, simply stepping over to him and stomping on his face. His giggling became a cackle, racked with hacking coughs, as though his point was proven. Klein raised his foot and repeated the motion, turning his foot sideways to stomp on his throat. Putting his weight into it, he twisted the heel in until a wet crack announced that he'd broken his neck, bringing his laughter and his life to an end.

Klein regarded his friend. "The hell are you doing here?"

Kirito was about to answer, but as he spoke everything went quiet. The battle fell still, unmoving. It was a sudden, absolute silence, with no sound save for the rasp of his own breathing and heartbeat. He puzzled over the realization that this couldn't be right; there were four beats to the rhythm. Hoof beats.

Only one person moved amongst the frozen scene. Asuna, dressed in her KOB armour set was standing on the other side of a pair of people that had previously been in the process of impaling each other on the swords, now motionless. This couldn't be right; Asuna hadn't been here. She'd already been long dead by this point in time. She was far too clean, standing out all the more amongst the embattled crowd.

Slowly, everyone's heads pivoted to face Her, every set of eyes staring accusingly. She jolted, startled by the attention, and then without a word of explanation disappeared.

It was Klein now who came back to life. Sheathing his katana, he stepped over to his friend.

"You need to stop coming here, you know." His entire demeanor had changed, the steel in his expression softening back into his familiar warm smile. Klein's short hair was likewise back to the longer style held in check by his bandanna. Less the unstoppable harbinger of gruesome death and more the kind young man Kirito called his friend. "Places like this, I mean."

Despite the ragged breathing filling his ears, Klein's words cut through them clearly.

Kirito staggered a few steps back, but every eyes remained focused on him, their heads tracking him in slow turns. "I'm…I'm dreaming?"

 _"Of course," Klein gestured to their surroundings, still paused, "unless you can remember how you got here from the eighty third floor and went from the dead of night to the middle of the day."_

 _As one, everyone turned bodily towards him and stepped closer, closing in on him. Kirito reflexively took a few quick steps in retreat, bumping into someone. Turning around, he saw himself. Himself as he had been, tired, burnt. Weary._

 _"I'm fine." It said in reply to the previous question of whether or not he was okay. It was clear the answer was not an honest one._

 _"I think you should get going." Klein placed a hand on Kirito's shoulder. "You need to be looking forward, not back. Or at least up, given the setting."_

 _Grabbing him by the scruff of his coat, Klein kicked a leg in a sweep that knocked one of his feet out from under him. Before he would recover, Klein jerked on his collar and toppled him over._

Already too far gone Kirito slipped from his saddle, falling to the ground with a wet splash. Horse continued on for a couple paces before coming to a stop and craning its head around to see what he was doing this time. Kirito lie on his back, staring up at the sky.

 _I'm on the eighty third floor._ He reminded himself. _Headed towards Kamen' Nora…When did it start raining?_

It was a light drizzle, just enough for him to have landed in a shallow puddle. Far in the distance he could hear the rolling boom of thunder. The line of trees was far enough behind them to be out of sight, and before him was a field of stones ranging from rocks the size of bowling balls to house sized boulders and larger buttes. Multiple paths could be seen entering the area. Somewhere inside this was a town.

 _Eighty third floor._ He repeated. _Kamen' Nora._

Judging by his clock he'd been out for a while, defenselessly ambling along on his horse. On the plus side, nothing had killed him in his sleep. Silver lining, but a bad habit to make.

Thinking over his less than lucid dream, Kirito felt compelled to pinch himself. _When did it start raining? Am I…here? Am I still dreaming?_

"Is not _all_ that we see or seem," Kirito snapped his head round to the source of the voice, seeing Her standing nearby, facing away to the north west, "but a dream within a dream?"

The fulldive system used to make worlds like Aincrad possible relied on cutting him off from his physical body, inducing a comatose or deep, dreamlike state. From a certain perspective, so long as he was in here he was _always_ dreaming, or at least doing something close to it. Four years of that straight may not be the healthiest of things for a mind already fraying.

She turned to face him and smiled. She was untouched by the rain, and was the spitting image of Asuna, even dressed as she was when he'd last seen her. When she'd died. "Hello. You're getting closer. Just over-"

The unwanted vision pointed her arm in the direction she'd previously been facing. "- _that_ way."

"Go _away."_ He didn't mean to, but he looked Her in the eyes. She had _her_ eyes.

Her smile didn't falter. If anything it widened into a childish grin. "What's the matter? It's me, Asuna. Aren't you happy to see me?"

"No you're _not_ leave me _alone!_ " He shouted in an anguished cry, clutching both hands to the back of his head, clamping over his ears and pinching his eyes shut. He began to frantically scratch the back of his skull, but when he opened his eyes she was still there, eliciting another cry from him.

"What are you doing?" She stepped closer to him, and Kirito took a quick step back away from Her.

"Stay away!" He retreated again as she took another step. Her smile had started to fade into a concerned, confused frown.

"You shouldn't be so loud." She warned, her voice more of a soft coo than anything, her tone not fitting her words. "They'll hear you."

He began to pant, hyperventilating. _So, this is what it's like to finally go crazy. First the thing with the map, and now this._

She cocked her head to the side. "What about a map?"

His cat and horse started to become agitated, reacting to his behavior but not knowing what was causing it. Yonaka's head darted from one direction to another, trying to find whatever it was her master was speaking to, but he was the only person here.

"You're not real!" He shouted, then caught himself. _Stop talking to it! It isn't real! It isn't real. It's not real. It'snotrealit'snotrealit'snotrealit'snotrealit'snotreal._

"Did I do something wrong?" For the longest of moment it was silent, watching him, waiting for an answer. "I'm sorry."

And just like that She left. Not even with a blink or a flash, but simply ceasing to be there as surely as it never had been.

Kirito sank down, mentally exhausted and dropped into a sitting position despite the west ground. He tried to steady his breath to keep from weeping and failed. While wiping what was only mostly rainwater from one cheek he felt Yonaka bump her muzzle into the other. The cat gave a concerned rumble and rubbed her head against his shoulder. For the first time he reciprocated, petting the animal. It made him feel better than he'd expected it to. After a minute of allowing the animal to try and comfort him as best it could he took back to his feet. His pants were thoroughly wet from the ground, but with a few button presses he swapped them out for a dry pair from his inventory. One of the benefits of Aincrad.

"Ok, where to next?" He asked himself, his voice still shaking, though he faced the cat when speaking. He summoned and studied both maps, got his bearings, then raised a hand to point in the right direction. " _That_ wa-"

It was the same way that the unwanted vision had pointed. Still shaken from the ordeal, he tried to put it out of his mind, literally and figuratively, and got back on his horse. He needed to keep moving.

The stones ended up being something akin to a maze, but an easy one to navigate. It was also full of cavern volk. Cavern volk were much like their field dwelling cousins, with the only differences being that they were recoloured from filthy brown to dark grey like shale, and that their plates of armour were made less of packed dirt and fur and more of solid stone that had a high chance of outright deflecting most cutting attacks. On the plus side, this meant that there was a lot to keep Kirito's mind occupied as he fought off pack after pack of them until the sun started to rise. On the other hand, this meant that an already tired Kirito was stuck fighting off pack after pack of cavern volk until after the sun rose.

Thankfully, the town was easy enough to find. Much more so than expected, given the terrain. If ever there was any uncertainty on where to go, one could just climb the nearest biggest rock and get an updated lay of the land.

Kamen' Nora was easy to spot once he got closer. Its wall was a three storey tall border of solid, rough grey stone two meters thick that was in the shape of a sharp square. The buildings inside were made of the same material, fashioned from large blocks of stone. There was no grass. Instead, the entire area inside the walls was paved with bricks a handspan in size of various shades of grey. The entire town was almost oppressively drab.

Wasting no time, Kirito made his way through the empty settlement directly to the teleporter in its center, of course also made from grey stone, albeit highly polished. Dismounting, Kirito pressed his palm into its surface to unlock it, and the thimble of blue light that hung suspended within the archway pulsed in turn.

From here three options presented themselves to Kirito. He could explore Kamen' Nora for any salvage or anything else worthwhile, he could leave and head up to the next floor's first city and unlock it, or he could get some much needed sleep and worry about both of those later.

The sun was already up. If anything it would be time for breakfast soon. Tying the reigns to his horse to a nearby bench and setting Yonaka to keep watch, he had to admit he was exhausted, but rest could wait. Technically, Kirito had already slept last night, he reasoned. Sure, it was only for a couple hours while on horseback and had been just about the opposite of restful, but he'd just gotten here. Besides, he was hungry.

Kamen' Nora was a decent sized settlement, but most of it was as vacant as anywhere else. After purchasing a breakfast pastry from an open food stall, he gave the town a cursory inspection. From what he could tell there had been nobody that used to live here, since he found no abandoned buildings that stood out from the usual vacant, cookie cutter establishments. Perhaps it was because the town was so far from anything worthwhile, or maybe it was because of the fact that everything was oppressively grey, somehow foreboding, even. Something about the town raised his hackles the longer he searched it.

As he cracked open the door to yet another barren building that might have used to have been a bar, he thought heard footsteps nearby. Light, soft, nearly covered by the sound of the breeze that had accompanied it.

Closing the door, Kirito crept over to inspect it, peeking around a corner to find nothing. When another breeze slipped past, he heard it again, but could see that it was just a young female NPC walking down the street. She paid him no mind, and he didn't follow further as she rounded another corner and left his view. It was early enough that the few stores that existed while here would still be opening, the NPCs still making their way to their stations.

He heard another set of footsteps approaching, louder, clicking against the stone walkways at a pace suggesting a sense of urgency. Whoever it was making no effort to hide themselves. A burly male NPC came into view at a jog, stopping at the still closed blacksmith's store next door, muttering to himself about how late he was.

 _Odd._ The display wasn't nearly lifelike, the drone's tone and performance stilted, but it meant the system was trying with the resources it had allotted. He was used to towns running on the minimum settings, which allowed for very little, if any personality in their inhabitants.

It was strange. He had gotten long used to NPCs acting with such little range that they might as well have been stage props. Their dead faced gazes used to unsettle him, but now it was simply the way things were. NPCs acted like props because that's all they were. Now, to find an NPC with whom the system at least tried, albeit poorly to pretend otherwise was somehow even more discomforting. He couldn't place at first why this brief little show of personality bothered him so deeply. After all, this was the norm in the game's early days. Back then, when there were more people to witness it, all the NPCs had a measure of personality, if not quite humanity.

Kirito didn't need the service of the blacksmith, and figured there was nothing to find in Kamen' Nora that he could locate without a deeper search than he felt like giving at the moment. Time to leave and unlock Shyotulus, the first town of the eighty fourth floor. If that name was borrowed from any language, Kirito couldn't recognize it and didn't care to check.

From what he had heard, it was supposed to be a settlement on the average end in terms of size, constructed of mostly log cabin styled buildings, and was situated within a massive fenshin forest. Fenshin were a type of thin trunked fir tree native to Aincrad that had a blueish green colour to their needles and stood up to six storeys tall.

Back at the center of Kamen' Nora his cat and horse were still waiting near the teleporter. There was also a pair of vendors present, ready to do business. One was an older woman that had brought in a push cart which held a variety of fresh fruits, and was in the process of selling something to another middle-aged male. The other was just getting done opening up his stand, which looked to be a general store of sorts for small odds and ends.

"Look again." The whisper in his ear.

 _Dammit, not again._ He felt the compulsion to scratch away at the voice in the back of his head, but on further thought turned back towards the two shopkeepers. Something wasn't right.

The old woman with the fruit cart did indeed have a customer. Another NPC. His clothes didn't look like they obviously belonged to any particular profession and he was in no rush to get anywhere, judging by how he was making idle chit chat with the owner of the cart. This NPC didn't have a shop to get to, nor did it have anything over its head to indicate it was a quest giver.

Finished with its purchase, the drone strolled casually over to the other side of the plaza, sitting on a nearby bench to munch on the apple it had bought and read a book it pulled from one of its pockets. The NPC served no vital purpose. It didn't provide any of the basic amenities, nor did it have a quest. It was an extra NPC.

Being fixated on such a thing would have been silly in the early days of Aincrad, as towns had been full of the drones making their way through their fake little lives, their sole purpose in life to make the towns feel more alive and active. With Kirito travelling alone for so long, he only ever warranted a town spawning the barest of settings to function, not to entertain, and yet here he was, staring at an extra NPC whose only immediate use was to exist. A flavour NPC, as they had been called, named so because they existed to give the environment itself more personality, more 'flavour'.

Kirito snapped his head around when he spotted another one to the left. This one a was female in a yellow sundress. She entered the plaza and walked over to the male, sitting beside and engaging him in flat conversation as though he'd been waiting for her. This town had spawned too many NPCs for only him.

There was someone else in town. Possibly several people. Probably close by. He hadn't seen or heard anyone since he'd gotten here. Not human, anyways, or perhaps he had and not realized it.

His hands a blur of practiced motion, Kirito returned his swords to his inventory. Valuables like that were best kept out of reach. Instead, he summoned a stout war hammer. The weapon was short but heavy, with a brass plated head that was flat on one side and had a curved spike on the other. Inside towns he couldn't actually deal any damage to another green player's health and his weapons wouldn't penetrate their flesh or armour, rendering his swords nearly useless. However, he could still transfer enough kinetic energy with a blunt attack to be useful, and even though he could not decrease a player's health, he could keep them at bay or even break their bones with enough force.

He untied his horse, leading it towards the teleporter.

 _Calm down._ He tried to steel himself. _This happens occasionally. Maybe it's nothing. Just too many spawns. Quirk in the system. Everything has quirks by now. Everything._

Yonaka perked her ears up, instantly on alert. She began to sniff the air and growl, but couldn't decide on a direction.

Kirito listened close, at least relieved that he hadn't heard the distinct shattering pop and crackling electric hum that might otherwise herald something he had no desire to deal with.

He decided to call out. "Hello? Someone…someone there?"

If anyone was they didn't deign to answer. This did nothing to put him at ease.

 _Time to go._ He keyed his destination into the teleported and punched it in.

The thimble sized pinprick of soft blue light that hung suspending in the middle of the archway burst, filling the portal with a roiling blue miasma of churning energy. Kirito ushered panther through first then, giving the area one last sweeping glance that found nothing, mounted his horse and followed in after her. The portal was at least large enough to pass through while on horseback. Most of the time he would either have to walk alongside it or send it through separately. After a brief couple moments of dizzying speed, Kirito took form a few meters from the teleporter in Shyotulus.

He was struck at one by how wrong it was, but took a few moments to process why. The town was indeed built predominantly from solid wood logs, giving everything a very rustic appearance, but the tops of all the houses, the ground, everything was covered in a thin film of grey. It was if it had just snowed, but it wasn't cold. In fact, it was a touch too warm.

More pressing was what was missing from outside the town, whose outer wall was only a little taller than he was and was close enough for him to see. _Where are all the trees?_

He was so engrossed in this question that he momentarily forgot about the potential people he'd possibly left behind in Kamen' Nora. At least he was, until he heard the electrical hum of the portal discharging behind him.

"Run!" He heard her shout in his mind even as he was turning to see a figure on horseback take form about six meters away to the other side of the archway.

He locked eyes with Kirito, and as if they were summoned, a quartet of additional riders coalesced around the figure.

* * *

Author's notes: More world building. With Kirito by himself most all the time, this fic is a bit slowly paced. With many of the most important events in Aincrad's timeline having already taken place, this fic looks backwards almost as often it does forward. If ever it isn't clear which way we're facing, it's because Kirito isn't sure either.

On the cavalry charge, I like the idea of what sort of tactics might develop for larger conflicts in a world where just stabbing or impaling someone won't kill them, at least not if you only do it once. Disabling them first, say, with a heavy lance staking them to the ground would allow you to pin them in place and pick them apart.

Also, cannons. Yes, cannons. Primitive cannons are pretty simple devices. With a world with such developed physics as SAO, once you find anything capable of delivering explosive force all you need to do is make something to direct it. Like a cannon. In Aincrad, however, they are not really anti-personnel weapons, but anti-material. Something probably not used to kill someone, but to deal a massive amount of blunt impact damage to perhaps break them or something else. It would also allow red players to terrorize and provoke green players hiding in towns by shelling them.

The more complex anything is, the more ways you can get creative and break it, and Aincrad is very complex.


	7. You Are (Not) Alone

_Lastly, regarding the figure you people are calling Ronin the Kindled, the Ashen, the Lord of Embers, the Pyred Man, the Restless, the…the "Sindered Swordsman" or whatever other fool title you've given him. Should you happen across him, do_ not _engage him alone. Instead, send a call for reinforcements, stay well out of sight and wait until you have great enough numbers to overwhelm him. He's burnt through enough of us that I'd hope you'd all have learned to approach with a bit more caution by now._

 _-Excerpt of a command issued by Jaeger during a meeting with his guild's collected captains-_

* * *

Ignoring the voice in the back of his head, a figure of speech that was becoming less and less figurative as the days went by, Kirito turned his horse around so that he could see the newcomers more clearly. He stopped his mount with its right flank facing them so that if he did decide to run, he'd have less turning to do to face away from them.

There were five riders, three men and two women, though only one of each gender rode horses. Two of them rode grey skinned drell, a type of lizard much like a gecko, with a larger profile than a horse but a lankier, wiry form. Their heavily arched backs resulted in their riders being seated over their front shoulders, legs hanging on either side of their necks. They were neither fast nor strong, but they were versatile and incredibly maneuverable, albeit skittish and prone to distraction.

The man that had been the first to arrive sat astride a maroon and gold striped techen, a greatcat that was designed like someone mixed a tiger with a cheetah, then scaled it up until it was large enough to seat two people. They took a few seconds to get up to speed and couldn't turn very well once they had, but it was leagues away the fastest animal of the lot of them despite being the largest.

Kirito pulled his war hammer from its place on his back and gave the riders a quick once over. Their gear was all wildly different, the only similarity being that their armour sets all shared a colour scheme, earthen brown with a red stripe running along the right flank from the calf all the way up their ribs and along their outer arm. The two on the horses wore studded leather armour and had what appeared to be slim swords on their backs, but in their hands was something much more curious. They both carried long iron catch poles, one side ending in two rounded prongs that almost formed a circle but left a wide gap between the tines, and the other end had a length of metal cable in a stiff loop. Both tools were clearly wide enough to accommodate a human head.

The two on the drell were dressed more lightly in normal, unarmoured clothes. No doubt to avoid weighing down their weaker animals. What caught Kirito's eye most about them was the rare sight of what they carried. Large, complicated two handed crossbows, a weapon difficult to make and nearly useless in Aincrad when it came to killing anything. What Kirito had initially thought to be impractically short javelins were actually stout steel bolts, stored in fat quivers on the lizards' sides along with several lengths of metal wire. Already cocked and loaded, one such cable connected the backs of their crossbows to the front of a bulky device on their right forearms. By the stubby, large caliber barrel, Kirito could reasonably guess what they were.

The man on the techen was the only one with a standard weapon. A full length, two handed war hammer rested on his back. He was dressed in simple but effective looking light plate armour. Seeing Kirito's apprehension, he held up his empty hands in a peaceful gesture.

"Well met. No need for violence." His voice had the smooth, manufactured warmth of a practiced negotiator with far too much enthusiasm. Something which only compounded Kirito's unease. "We mean you no harm."

"Who are you and what do you want?" Kirito demanded. His own people skills, already lacking, had suffered from disuse and isolation.

"Fair questions. I am Tolliver Stormwind." The man spread his arms out to gesture to his companions. "These are my friends. We're here because we wish to speak with you, Shattersword."

Kirito's eyes widened a little at that statement, or rather the name at the end of it. During better days he'd been known as the Black Swordsman due to his iconic rare black elucidator sword. That had changed when he'd lost his duel with Kayaba, which had ended with his Dark Repusler breaking against the man's shield. With his sound defeat, broken weapon and likewise broken spirit from Asuna's death, people had taken to calling him the Kirito the Shattered Swordsman out of spite for his prematurely triggering Kayaba's reveal and subsequently failing to end the game. In time, this was simplified to the title Shattered Sword, then further, to just Kirito Shattersword, his given title treated more like a surname. Finally, with a quasi-surname, he was free for another title to be tacked onto the end, even more insulting: the Lost.

It was fairly common for people to acquire and accumulate titles and nicknames during their stay in Aincrad. Assuming Tolliver was the man's real playername, Stormwind was obviously either a taken name or the resulting mutation of a previous title or titles.

Tolliver smiled and continued speaking in a more soothing tone. "Yes, I know who you are, Kirito, though I had not thought to ever see you journey so high. My expectations were that you would remain farther down. Fortunate then that we found you so quickly."

"Found me?" Kirito repeated back, has hackles raising further. "You're following me? Searching? Why? Tell me."

"Relax, my friend. As I said, we mean you no harm. We're not with _them_." Tolliver patted the head of his mount as the cat grew anxious, reacting to Kirito's hostile speech. "Quite the opposite, truly. With how easy it was, you should be pleased we found you first. You shout very loud for a man traveling alone."

Tolliver sat farther up on his mount, performing a quick look around. "You are alone, are you not? It is strange, seeing a man yell at himself with such…emotion. Are you touched in the head?"

 _Run._ Came the whisper in his brain.

Kirito wasn't about to say one way or the other whether or not he was alone, and certainly not that he'd been wailing at a hallucination. Instead, he repeated his earlier question more forcefully. "What do you want?"

Tolliver's smile widened. "As I said, I wish to speak with you-"

"Why?" Kirito interjected. The rest of the man's party had been entirely too silent, and unlike their leader had their weapons ready in hand. "About what?"

"As I said," Tolliver joyfully repeated the phrase with what was becoming grating frequency, "you are fortunate we found you so quickly. It isn't safe for you here, Kirito. My master wishes to extend his invitation to you. You will come with us? We will take you somewhere safe."

Her voice grew more urgent. _Run. Now_.

"And who is your master?" With his hammer hanging low in his right hand and the reigns in his left, Kirito started to slowly angle his horse away from them.

Tolliver's hands lowered to rest on his own reigns. "A very gracious man. You will meet him."

"I'll pass." Kirito eyed the man's party, who had started to fan out as their talk neared its end. "I don't know who you or your _master_ are, and I'm not going anywhere with you."

Yonaka and the man's techen began to growl at each other until the latter's rider softly hushed it.

He raised an eyebrow as if he didn't quite understand what he was hearing, then gave a hearty laugh. "My apologies for the confusion. We are not asking. As I said, you will come with us. Lay down your weapons, Kirito. You don't have to fight anymore."

Before the voice could scream in his mind, Kirito was already spurring his mount into motion, taking off at a full gallop. He was reminded of the dingy, thin grey film coating the tops of everything like uneven plaster. The roads, the roofs, every upper surface. As his Horse galloped away, it came up under its hooves in sheets and chunks. Whatever the stuff was it was it broke and cracked like fragile clay.

He glanced back over his shoulder to see if they were pursuing, ducking down low just in time to avoid a javelin bolt that would have impacted square between his shoulders if he hadn't seen it coming. The bolt was still connected to its launcher by the stiff cable, and Kirito adjusted his course to avoid getting entangled in it. A harsh snap could be heard as the woman who'd shot it severed the cable on her end and began to load another round.

Unlike Kirito, his mount was not built for speed but endurance for long distance rides. Nevertheless, the animal could move when properly motivated, and quickly put some distance between him and the slower drell. The two on the horses with the catchpoles were better able to keep pace, but he had a lead on them and they were slower to get up to speed. It was the techen that would be the problem. The greatcat lacked the endurance of the horses and the maneuverability of the drell, but could far outpace any of them in burst sprints. It was also the most able to hold its own in a fight.

Kirito kicked his heels into his horse's sides and urged it onwards, his panther following on his left. Whoever they were, they couldn't hurt him in town, but if they were to be believed they intended to take him somewhere else. Outnumbered and with no idea how powerful his pursuers were, Kirito had little desire to engage them outside the safe zone. It would be best to teleport away or lose them in town. The sound of rapid fire pawbeats drew Kirito to hazard another look behind him, seeing the techen bearing down on them, gaining rapidly like it had been shot out of a cannon.

Jerking his reigns to the side, Kirito took a sharp turn right. Having had no warning, Yonaka overshot and disappeared from sight as she scrabbled for purchase in the caked layer of silt. The layout of Shyotulus was fairly open, with plenty of distance between each building and no real organization. Most structures were simple single storey cabins and longhouses, plopped down almost at random, though a few two storey buildings were scattered amongst them. The roads were unpaved, made from pressed earth that was more the natural result of traffic than anything intentional.

Tolliver shot past him, moving far too fast to even begin to turn. The techen twisted and dug its claws into the ground, sliding along like a drifting car and throwing up a wake of grey flakes. Kirito paid him no mind, taking a few more quick turns to try and shake the horses. Theirs were faster than his, and despite his best efforts they slowly closed the gap between them. The nearest one leaned forward in his saddle, reaching out with the wired loop of his catchpole like he was trying to tether some animal.

His efforts were cut short as his horse gave a startled whinny. Yonaka, unencumbered and fiercely protective, had caught up to them and sank its claws and teeth into the hindquarters of the man's horse, pulling the beast down. The horse stumbled, its rider giving a high pitched cry as the heavy animal rolled over top of him. With no reason to keep at him and no ability to harm him in the town's safe zone, Yonaka took off again to try and catch back up to Kirito and the remaining horsewoman.

Having barely had time to have seen Yonaka's strike and confused as to why her companion had suddenly gone from in front of her to a crumpled form left behind, she twisted in her saddle to see what had become of him. While she was distracted, Kirito yanked heavily on his reigns. Horse reared its head up, coming to a jarring, staggering halt. She turned back forward just in time to pass Kirito by, and to catch his swinging hammer full in the face. She snapped back against her horse and slid off, her steps wavering and unsteady as she rose to her feet.

Kirito didn't bother following up with any further attacks on the dazed woman. With their moment of respite, he dug his hand into one of his saddlebags and pulled out the means of their escape. A corridor crystal.

Crystals were fragile items, too much so to carry physically into battle on one's person. A single stray blow could destroy the expensive object. However, taking them out of his inventory could take too long, so Kirito always kept a few crystals of various types in his saddle bags. A standard teleport crystal could only transport him and one animal companion, and abandoning his horse with so many valuable items on it was not his preferred operating procedure. A standard crystal would also just put him down in the nearest discovered town's center, which in this case was not very useful. A corridor crystal, however, would open a temporary gateway to any landmark or notable location he'd ever been to. He need only speak the words.

He held the blue crystal brick up to his face and uttered, "Teleport: Fallback Ceti!"

The item gave a pulsing hum and glowed from within, activating. It was then torn from his hand and dashed into pieces as a javelin bolt slammed into it. Kirito turned in the direction it had come from and saw one of the drell riders on the roof of a two storey in the distance, peering at him through her scope. The lizard's hind two feet were gripping the roof with its suctioned toes, and its front two legs were perched on the chimney, giving its rider an elevated view. He could see her begin to load another round.

The woman whose skull he'd nearly caved was steadying, the area under her right eye slightly misshapen. The skin wouldn't break, forcing the cracked cheekbone to rearrange as best it could beneath the surface. Despite the injury, she quickly sought out her horse and began pulling herself up into the saddle.

Farther down the path they'd come from, Kirito could see the other rider making his approach as well. Kicking Horse back into motion, Kirito rode by the horsewoman just as she was taking her seat, ringing the back of her head with a heavy hammer swing for good measure. She went limp and slipped once more to the ground, lying still.

The path Kirito was about to take was cut off as Tolliver and his techen slammed into the side of a corner they couldn't quite make and blocked their way. Without any time to slow down or change course, Kirito could only try and go around him. As they passed, he quickly lay back against his horse and watched as Tolliver's hammer swept over him through the space where his chest had been a split second before.

Taking a quick left, Kirito spotted the other drell rider coming around another corner just as he was galloping past. Raising the crossbow, the bolt was let free with a sharp report. The projectile rammed into Kirito's back just above his right kidney. Though it couldn't penetrate his flesh, it did stab through his longcoat. There was a twang of a cable snapped taught and Kirito found himself pulled from his horse, his mount continuing on without him as he came to a sudden halt. Rolling over from his back onto his knees, he noticed that the bolt was connected by a long wire to a stake planted in the wall of the cabin nearest the drell rider that had launched them. He'd already loaded another, connecting the wires.

Kirito hastily shed his coat, removing it with some difficulty due to straps of his hammer's sheath still around his chest. He got a better look at the bolt. The tip was sharp, as expected, but was also a pressure button. As it had struck him, the tip was depressed, triggering several metal fins to spring up and outwards like the veins on an umbrella, grabbing onto his coat from the inside. He didn't want to imagine getting hit with this outside the safe zones.

Having reloaded with greater rapidity than anticipated, the man let loose another bolt, striking Kirito in the center of his chest, punching some of the air from his lungs and latching on to the inside of his shirt. He grabbed the cable, threading it around his arm and prepared to pull the rider from his mount. Before that could happen he pointed barrel of the contraption on his forearm at the same wall. Clenching his fist, he triggered the wrist mounted cannon's firing mechanism, and with a sharp bark it spat a stake into the wall, the wire connecting it to the bolt.

It was at this point that Tolliver spurred his cat into another charge. Kirito tore himself free of the bolt, leaving a haft of fabric behind before they could launch another as he ran to the side. He saw his horse being wrestled to the ground by the other drell, cutting off his escape vehicle. The man on horseback caught back up, swinging his catchpole down at him. Kirito ducked under the blow and took off running towards a shop that looked like a blacksmith's, open for business. A simple store with a heavy door on the left and a large window to its right. Yonaka intercepted the horsemen for a moment, hissing and howling at the mount until it reared up and panicked.

Having closed the distance, Tolliver leaped from his techen and landed in a full tilt sprint. He pointed at his cat, then at the panther. "Scipio: pin!"

The greatcat, already at full speed and several times the size of the panther, barreled into it from the side in a leaping tackle. The techen clamped its jaws around the scruff of the struggling cat's neck and shook it violently back and forth, eventually beating it against the ground and pressing its greater weight on top of it.

Making it to the smith's, Kirito hurried inside, throwing the door closed behind him. Ignoring the smithy, he waved open his menu and began scrolling through his inventory for another teleport crystal. Leaving his mount and pet behind were not normally something he was so quick to do, but the horse was a generic, replaceable mount, and they couldn't kill Yonaka inside the town and probably had very little reason to go through the effort of taking her outside to do so. He could always come back for it or get a new one.

The picture window shattered inwards as the man with the catchpole leapt through, landing in a roll that left him in a short-lived crouch. Kirito twisted away from a thrust with the forked end of the catchpole, pitched forward and bull rushed him, wrapping his arms around his torso and lifting him up to ram him against the opposite wall. The man's catchpole was too long to fight effectively so close, leaving Kirito free to batter away at him with his hammer. First he struck him with a simple downwards blow to the crown to disorient him, followed quickly with a pair of strikes at his right arm, the second of which landed on his elbow with a stiff _crack_.

Stronger than him, he head-butted Kirito in the face and shoved him away to get better use of his polearm. Crouching beneath the wide arcing swing that swept off the contents of the smith's countertop, Kirito lunged forward, thrusting the top of his hammer into the man's face while reaching his left hand lower, near his waist with his palm up and fingers cupped. Quickly finding the soft sack of flesh, Kirito made the cup into a fist, crushing its contents. The man's shout started low and angry, but quickly rose into a screaming soprano as Kirito felt a pair of soft objects compress in his grip. He tore his hand away, letting the man slump to the floor clenching his legs.

He was still crawling away when the NPC smithy grabbed him by the collar and began shouting at him, demanding payment for his broken window. Taking advantage of the distraction, Kirito opened his menu again, but was forced to run as Tolliver came leaping through the remains of the window.

Tolliver wasted no time in charging at him. "Stop running. We're here to help!"

It was difficult to believe such a statement when was punctuated by an attack with a hammer. Kirito did no such thing, instead vaulting over the store counter, knocking the few things still on it off in the process and headed for the back door.

It opened, and he was frozen in his tracks for a split second as he saw Asuna, arm raised and pointing to the left. His eyes darted to the ground at the apparition's feet to see a shadow from someone approaching from the right. Once outside he turned left, hearing someone on foot behind him running after. He was cut off by the female drell rider as her lizard crawled down from the roof of the blacksmith in front of him.

Kirito spun out of the way of the javelin bolt, bumping into the wall and running between it and the drell. She pointed her wrist cannon and fired the spike a meter in front of him, nearly clotheslining him with the wire. His hammer was brought down into the kneecap of her mount's hind leg as he ran by, earning a pained shriek as the animal bucked away from him.

On foot, he couldn't outrun them, at least not for long. Doing a hasty scan for any options, he spotted a cabin not too far away that stood out from all the others. A single storey residence, made not from the same logs as everything else, but from red brickwork. The windows were the tall, narrow style too thin to fit a body through often used to deter thieves. A playermade home, and judging by the 'For Sale' sign posted in the front yard, it was vacant. A vacant house would not be locked, as prospective buyers needed to be able to see inside to make their decisions, but it would still _have_ a lock.

He made a beeline for it, getting there before any of his pursuers could catch up. The handle twisted, and the door pushed open. He didn't notice the tripwire inside until it was already pulled taught and snapping free. The moment seemed to slow as he couldn't stop himself, couldn't slow his momentum from carrying him inside. The string was tied around the inside doorknob. It ran through a meal loop screwed into the frame, then up to the ceiling, through a couple of hanging hooks, to a pair of hanging contraptions.

One dropped a teal brick to the floor which began to hum and glow. Kirito could feel a pit form in his gut as he instantly knew what it was. A beacon crystal. Almost forgetting about the party chasing after him, Kirito ran for the brick, hammer raised to smash it.

There was a great deal of variety in the crystal family of items, more so than people had initially believed. It was only when people got creative on their own that the possibilities began to unfold. A corridor crystal could make a temporary gateway much like the town teleporters between the location it was activated at and the general vicinity of any notable landmark the user had ever been to. A beacon crystal acted just as its name implied. It was a beacon for teleporters. Once activated, its paired stone would likewise activate, no matter where in Aincrad it was. Then, so long as it was active a corridor crystal could lock onto it as if it were any other landmark.

The second object was a tightly packed paper sack the size of his fist, the short wick at its top already burning. It reminded Kirito of his own handmade flash bombs, though of a significantly greater quality.

It exploded at face height, throwing white hot burning fragments in all directions. Kirito's vision went blank, obscured by a searing, all-encompassing whiteness. He stumbled, blinded by the brilliance. The flash bomb had burned so brightly that he could feel it singe his face.

The remnants were fizzling out as Kirito heard the first of his pursuers burst into the room. Kirito could still make out basic shapes well enough to identify Tolliver. The man made ready to attack him but spotted the still active beacon. Forgetting his prey, Tolliver shoved him aside and smashed the crystal with his hammer.

It was too late. The crystal had already had plenty of time to send its call.

"Shit!" The jovial tone was gone from the man's voice. "Aw, shit!... _Shit!"_

The rest of his party caught up, entering to assist with apprehending their target. Kirito wildly swung his hammer in wide, half-blind arcs, earning a stiff curse when it connected with one of their temples. Despite his best efforts, Kirito was quickly overwhelmed, two of them wrestling him to the floor, pushing him down on his stomach, twisting his arms around behind him and placing a knee on his spine.

"Something wrong, Tolli?" The question came from the man pressing his knee into Kirito's back. By the crack in his voice he assumed it was the one whose testicles he'd nearly crushed. He wrestled with Kirito's wrists as he clamped a pair of cuffs on him.

"We have to go. _Now_." Tolliver was audibly fighting off a building dread. There was a long moment where he presumably counted the heads of his present party members. "Where's Dee?"

The knee in Kirito's back shifted as the man adjusted his crotch. "Took a spill a ways back. Looked like she was out cold. Should be up and about by now, though."

"Go get her!" Tolliver commanded, making no effort to hide his fear. "We need to get out of here!"

Kirito blinked and shook his head until he was able to make out faces again. Tolliver was anxiously pacing back and forth while the rest of his squad looked on with confusion and worry. All of them were present, save for the absent women he'd knocked out and the sniper woman who was still dismounting.

"Boss, what's goin' on?" Another male voice behind Kirito, which he presumed belonged to the drell rider that had shot him.

"There was a fucking beacon!" Tolliver shouted. The man's fear was instantly contagious to everyone else in the room. He pointed an arm at the door. "Go get Dee! We need to get the fuck out of here!"

A pair of hands let go of Kirito as one of the men got up to comply with the command.

"You'd better not leave without me!" The man ran to his drell and hurriedly rode off.

"Somethin' off?" The remaining woman asked as she stepped inside, confused.

The man on Kirito's back roughly shoved his face into the floor. "Shattersword here triggered a beacon."

Her face fell. "On, no. No no no. We gotta go."

Tolliver opened his menu. "We are."

He summoned a corridor crystal and held it up to his lips. "Teleport: Havenhold."

Tossing the brick onto the floor, it burst from within into a swirling mass of blue energy. With an electrical pop, it collapsed into a flat pane in the shape of an arch. The space inside tore into a roiling blue miasma that was at once infinitely deep and completely flat.

"Agito," Tolliver spoke to the horseman on Kirito's back, pointing a finger at the open vortex, "take him through. Claire, go with him. I'll follow once the others catch up."

He was hauled to his feet and strong-armed towards the gateway. Kirito knew as well as everyone else that they only had so much time to leave, but he had no idea where they were taking him and had no desire to find out.

"Stop struggling!" Agito head-butted him in the back of the skull, sending stars dancing through his still recovering vision. "We don't have time for this!"

As if to confirm his words, they all heard a sharp report. A loud, shattering _pop_. What was more concerning was what happened next. The small hairs on their arms and the back of their necks stood on end as a static charge washed over them with a crackling, electrical hum. Kirito felt his ears pop as though the air pressure had suddenly changed. Lastly, the portal twisted and warped, its soft hum distorting into a high-pitched screech that left everyone with free hands clutching their ears. Finally, the corridor collapsed in on itself with a loud thunderclap of discharging energy and displaced air.

Kirito had only heard the distinct sounds and felt the unique sensations once before, but there was no mistaking the feeling of an artificially generated anti-crystal zone deploying. An interdictor field. The town had just been the host to their chase, but now it and the two kilometer wide sphere it sat within had turned into a hunting ground.

It was at that point that the screams started.

A woman's voice, wailing for all its worth in desperate, terrified bouts that signified a struggle, but not a fight. It rose in pitch, sounding as though she was being slammed against the ground repeatedly.

"Dee…" Tolliver opened his menu.

He returned his hammer to his menu and summoned an odachi. The hammer was for green players. The sword was not.

The screaming stopped, completely and suddenly, cutting out mid breath. She was gone in every sense of the word.

What followed was several long moments of silence as everyone stared out the door, broken only by their collective breathing.

It was Agito who spoke first. "Tolli, the beacon. They'll be checking here first."

Tolliver nodded. "Let's go."

He turned to Kirito. "If you want to live you'll come with us. You make us struggle with you and we're all dead. If you have a problem with that, you can take it up with the man on the hill."

They couldn't escape on their mounts. The remaining drell couldn't handle the weight of more than one rider and was too slow in any case, and Agito had left his horse at the blacksmith's. Tolliver was torn between whistling for his techen and keeping quiet when they could hear the greatcat roaring furiously back from where he'd left it. Claire slapped her drell's flank, urging it to take off in another direction. If she couldn't escape on it she might as well try and use it to draw attention away from them.

Cuffed and held fast, Kirito didn't have many options. He didn't fight as Agito hustled him out of the door, Tolliver and the others following behind. Now that they were outside, they could more easily hear the sounds of battle. A chaotic clattering of steel on steel with jumbled voices too distant to make out could be heard from the direction of the town center. From the teleporter. As they started making their way towards the town's outer gates on foot they could hear someone shouting after them.

It was the man that had gone to fetch Dee, running towards them. He was still fairly far away, but Kirito could see that he'd lost his weapon and his drell. The man clutched his right arm which dangled uselessly from multiple breaks as he didn't so much sprint as stagger as fast as he could. He kept shouting at them to wait for him.

"Shit! He'll lead them right to us." Tolliver cursed. If there was any chance of them sneaking away before, it had just about vanished. He pointed to a vacant longhouse. Another single storey cookie cutter structure. What windows they could see had the shutters drawn closed. "In there!"

Kirito became acutely aware of a cawing bird. Looking back towards the injured horsemen, he could see an abnormally large raven circling above him. No doubt announcing his location to its master.

"Claire," Tolliver jerked a thumb at the spotter, "keep the skies clear."

Turning about in a quick one eighty, she raised her crossbow, peered through the scope and let loose her bolt, sans any wiring. The round whistled through the air to neatly spear the raven. The bird gave a pained squawk as it plummeted earthward, spiraling as it tried and failed to fight against the bolt's weight.

Reaching the longhouse, Tolliver opened the door and ushered the rest of them in, entering last. The building was revealed to have once been an old bakery. The back of the building contained the actual baking area while the front half was filled with several rows of bulky shelving units. The entire building was one room, the store and baking area separated by only a waist high wall. At the back of the building they could see the rear exit. Tolliver closed the door behind him and wasted no time in dragging one of the heavy shelves over to block it.

Claire reacted with a measure of shock. "But what about Dee and Kousuke?"

Tolliver was already moving to pushing another shelving unit to block one of the windows. "Too late! Barricade the windows!"

They reluctantly complied, blocking off each of the windows. There was one up front, and one on the left and right walls. They had just gotten done blocking the back door when Kousuke reached the bakery, pounding his working hand against the front door, pleading to be let in. The cadence of his beating and his battering at the door grew in urgency as he begged to be let inside.

Claire and Agito swapped out their crossbow and catchpole for their own swords, a rapier and a gladius, the latter still holding onto Kirito by the wrists behind his back. The wrist cannon remained in place on Claire's forearm, and she checked to make sure it was loaded and ready. They were more or less trapped here until the interdictor field wore off. It could last anywhere from half an hour to two hours, provided that the ones who'd deployed it didn't simply renew it.

"Tolli!" Agito shouted. "Let him in!"

"We can't!" He replied. A sharp one eighty from his previous stance of trying to save all of his crew.

Kirito didn't put much value in their fighting chances. He was sincerely wishing they hadn't cuffed him, and said so, though he was promptly ignored.

"Tolliver!" Agito insisted. "There's no point in keeping him out of a hiding spot when he's giving us away out there!"

The beating at the door continued.

"It's too late!" Tolliver commanded. "Just get ready!"

After a couple false starts, Claire gave an angry growl and headed towards the door. "Screw it. I'm not leaving him out there!"

She'd just grabbed the shelving unit, bracing herself to pull it away when the man outside was slammed bodily into the door hard enough to cave the wood in and jolt the heavy shelf. Everyone jumped as the man's screaming turned into a harsh choke. He was rammed into the partially collapsed door again, and then his cries flew upwards. Everyone present turned their heads as one, tracking the sounds as they could hear him rapidly move above them as he was smeared against the outside wall and across the roof, accompanied by the sounds of footfalls too heavy and too numerous to be human.

Solid blows could be heard connecting, each one shaking dust free of the ceiling. They all looked upwards as they could only listen. The struggle lasted all of seven seconds, punctuated by what could only be hammer blows and the snapping of bones. At ground level they could hear NPC town guards, spawned by the incursion, form around the bakery's perimeter and begin shouting canned threats and commands to cease and desist.

There was one last impact, the ceiling creaking as whatever was above them launched away, bringing Kousuke with it. They could hear his desperate calls grow more and more distant until they were gone.

Human steps made their way across the roof, slow and deliberate. Once they reached the edge the figure dropped to the ground, and they could hear them engage the town guards. A green player's health could not be damaged or decreased by another player while inside the town's inner area. That protection did not extend to the NPCs or any red players that saw fit to enter the walls. The idea was in the interest of game balance. A red player was discouraged from entering the towns, but they still had to feel that they had some chance in a fight with an NPC, even if the amount of spawnable guards was effectively infinite. Despite sounding like there were at least eight guards outside, by how things were going the fight was anything but balanced. In less than a minute there were none left.

The remnants of the shattered front door were pulled away. Tense silence for a long moment, followed by a knocking on the barricade, as though they were politely asking for entry, or perhaps trying to estimate how solid it was. The figure outside issued no threats or demands. They didn't need to. Instead, they could hear them begin to casually whistle the bars to 'Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head' to themselves as they strolled over to the front window.

Kirito's eyes widened, remembering the last time he'd heard that song. He knew who was out there; he'd met them before.

The snapping of wood announced the shutters being pulled off the building. The window was broken, and there was another knocking. The whistling continued, moving to the left. A couple seconds later and the same process was repeated with its window, the again at to the right.

They all listened to it heading towards the back wall, only pausing long enough for the figure to dispatch another squad of NPC guards. Another tapping at the back door followed shortly after. The whistler gave two more quick notes, one high and one low, as if they'd found something and stopped.

"Uncuff me." Kirito whispered harshly. "I can fight."

Reluctantly, Tolliver complied, nodding to Agito to release him. He could hear the keys jingling in his hands when the ceiling exploded. A neat circle a meter wide blasted inwards from a breaching charge in the center of the room, raining down as flaming debris. The blast wave blew all the accumulated dust in the old bakery into the short-lived maelstrom, mixing it with the smoke and instantly filling the room with a dense, choking fog.

A dark clad figure dropped though the newly made entrance, landing in a crouch in the center of the ring of burning splinters. The cloud of smoke was too thick to make out any but the most barest of features. A male, taller than average at around six feet in height. Slender of build and dressed in a long waistcoat. Despite the smoke and dust, he began to whistle again. The same tune in a slower, languid cadence. He began to casually walk towards them, punctuating his steps with every fourth musical beat, slowly twirling a midsized, hand and a half hammer in his left hand. Now that they could see him, obscured though he was, an orange icon blinked into existence above his head.

It wasn't he that was locked out, but they that had locked themselves in.

"Back door! Now!" Tolliver commanded. He drew and let loose a quartet of throwing knives, one after the other to try and delay him.

The figure didn't speed up or slow in the slightest, swatting away the incoming projectiles with the flat of his hammer. Agito and Claire wasted no time in clearing the barricade from the back door. Just as that was finished the door burst inwards, breaking in half and tearing off the hinges. A volk, too large to fit through the door, shoved its shoulders against the door frame as it snapped its beak around Claire's left wrist. Enough of the animal was visible to see an empty saddle on its back.

With a startled shout, Claire pressed her right fist against the beast's cheekbone and clenched her hand, firing a stake directly into its left eye. The volk recoiled out the door, releasing her as it shrieked. Their way clear, they spilled outside. Agito was the last out, or at least he was going to be before the thin leather cord of a whip snapped out and wrapped itself around his throat. He was nearly yanked off his feet as he was pulled back inside, disappearing into the swirling motes of dust and smoke. Claire was about to head in after him when the volk she'd shot leapt between her and the door, opening its maw and letting loose a howling scream. It wasn't attacking them, but blocking them, splitting them up.

From inside they could hear the sounds of an intense but short-lived fight, and soon there was only vicious hammer blows. Hunkering down didn't work, so now they ran. As they did, Claire loaded another stake and charge into her wrist cannon, the device giving a heavy _click-clack_ as the components slid into place. They briefly caught sight of Tolliver's techen as they ran. It was a quick glimpse between buildings in the distance. They might not have noticed it at all except for the fact that the thrashing greatcat's entire body was wreathed in flames. As it vanished from sight, a trio of explosions followed after it.

The gates were still over three hundred meters distant. It felt like kilometers. There would still be plenty of ground to cover once they exited the safe zone until they were free of the interdictor field, but they were getting there. Kirito was again struck by the complete absence of any trees. There should have been a thick forest surrounding the town on all sides, but there was nothing.

A volk skidded to a halt between them and their destination, baying and screeching. They didn't slow, Tolliver and Claire leaving Kirito behind as they engaged it. With his hands still cuffed behind him, running at speed was awkward and difficult, to say nothing of his inability to defend himself. The mount was a fearsome looking beast, but it was still just an animal, alone for the moment. Tolliver hacked away at it with his odachi while Claire fought with her rapier left handed, delivering a torrent of rapid thrusts.

As the creature expired, Kirito couldn't help but notice that its mud plates were a slightly different shade than the one they'd seen before, and that it, too had an empty saddle. At least two volk mounts, at least two riders. With the volk dead they resumed their run, Tolliver grabbing Kirito by the arm and hurrying him along.

He was just wondering how far away the volk's rider might be when a squad of six NPC guards spawned directly in front of them. They raised their halberds and charged past behind them, bellowing their canned war cries. Almost immediately what was left of the lower half of one of them was sent skidding across the ground in front of them as it broke into blue and white voxels. At once there came the cawing of a number of ravens overhead.

Glancing behind them, Tolliver gave a sharp curse. Biting his lip, he shoved Kirito over to Claire. "Here, take him! Don't stop!"

She stumbled as they ran, taking hold of Kirito as commanded. "What?!"

"Don't stop!" He repeated. The sounds of battle behind them were growing thinner as the guards were getting sliced apart. "I'll see you soon, I promise."

Toliver planted his feet, coming to a halt and spun to face their pursuer. Raising his odachi, he charged into the fray, hoping the guards would be enough help to give him a fighting chance. Kirito could tell from the tone of his voice he knew this would be the last they'd see of him.

They hadn't made it far when a high pitched whistling heralded an incoming object the size of a softball that struck the ground a few meters in front of them and exploded in a filthy conflagration of fire and black smoke. The two of them came to a stop in a moment's indecision. Kirito craned his head around to see where the bomb had come from, spotting a third volk, painted red, as its rider gave what he was holding a heavy underhand toss. This first thing Kirito noticed about it was that it was a satchel about the same size as a school backpack. The second thing, as it landed at their feet, was its rapidly burning wick.

Claire lifted her foot to stomp it out, and it detonated. For the briefest of moments Kirito's entire world was fire and pressure as the blast wave overtook them. All that he could see became a dizzying blur. He couldn't hear anything but the ringing in his ears, but he could feel himself take flight, tumbling end over end through the air before colliding and crashing through something solid. He hit it while horizontal, and he'd struck the object with the small of his back, sending a spike up pain along his entire body. Kirito could feel his back all but wrap around the object on impact, like a car crashing through a telephone poll. After that, everything went black.

Kirito woke with a gasp that turned into a pained yelp. He couldn't tell how long he'd been out, but as he was still alive it could not have been too long. He simply lay there, staring at the sky and willing himself to keep breathing through his abused lungs, his shattered ribs grinding with each breath. The ground where he had landed had a noticeable slope to it, and he found himself sliding downwards as the caked on layer of grey silt crumbled away. He had the sense to try and see where he was going just as he was about to slip off the edge of the roof.

He moved to catch himself with his hands, but he was still cuffed. His legs, likewise, refused to obey him. Now that he thought about it he couldn't feel anything from the waist down. Sitting up, or rather scrunching up as best he could, he got a better look around him. The blast had been so powerful that it had launched him onto the roof of a distant two story house. He might have sailed straight past it, but he had wrapped himself around the chimney, shattering the brickwork column in the process. Kirito tried to move his legs again. Nothing. The impact had severed his spine. A potion could not heal this sort of damage, only time or a crystal. The former would take anywhere from fifteen minutes to half an hour, depending on the severity of the damage, which Kirito could only presume was extensive and would only work if things were lined up properly during that time frame. With the interdictor field still in place, that left Kirito crippled.

He couldn't run. He couldn't walk, for that matter, and he couldn't fight. All he could do was hide. It would not take long for them to try and figure out where the blast from their overpowered bomb had sent him. From where he sat, he could see the crater from the explosion about a hundred, hundred fifty meters away, the sides of all the buildings facing the blast blown in and burning. He could only assume the fireball had been large enough to obscure his rapid exit. Kirito was reminded of his growing dislike of flying.

If Claire was anywhere nearby, he couldn't see her. The satchel had landed between them so he could only guess as to where she'd gone.

Nothing he could do about it now. Fighting fits of excruciating coughs, he crawled and scooted backwards onto the roof, towards the only option he had. Flopping down besides the remnants of the chimney, he slipped inside like a worm into a borough. With his legs completely useless, he was forced to crawl in head first. He was worried for a moment that he would simply plunge straight down into the fire place, but he snagged his right shoulder on a brick halfway down that wasn't quite flush and bunched up, clogging the chimney and getting firmly stuck in place.

Now, all he could do was wait them out. They would search, and they would either find him or they wouldn't. The inside of the chimney was narrow, and in the confined space he found his supply of air was rapidly diminishing. With most of his ribs shattered and his torso scrunched, breathing was laborious enough already. Worse yet, hanging upside down, blood poured down into his head until he felt it would burst. He lost track of all sense of time, simply struggling to stay conscious.

Teetering on the edge, he was brought back to a more waking state from a sharp whisper below him. He jolted as he heard it again.

 _"Psssst!"_ Came the whisper in that peculiar place between trying to be quiet and audible. "Hey."

Craning his head 'up' to face straight down, he saw someone poke her head into the fireplace, looking back up at him. Her right arm was braced against the inside of the chimney, and on it he could see the distinct wrist cannon. _Claire?_

"Stay still. I'm going to see if I can find a way to get you out of there." Without waiting for a reply she ducked back out of view.

He was still waiting when he finally blacked out completely. An unknowable amount of time later, Kirito slowly came to with the sense that he was being carried, someone softly laying him on his back. He could feel that his head and shoulders were resting on something, raised at an angle. As the pressure subsided from his head, he found himself opening his eyes to see the living room that fed into the fireplace.

"Welcome back." She said warmly. Her face was level with his, but now it was She that was upside down.

No, that wasn't right. As Kirito's foggy mind began to process what he was seeing, he realized he was lying on the floor, his head resting on her lap while she sat and curled down to speak to him.

Kirito tried to get up, but he still couldn't feel his legs.

"You broke your back." She stated, rubbing a hand over his cheek. "Lie still and let it mend."

Her calm was not contagious. If anything it was quite the opposite. He tried to brush her hand away, finding his wrists were still cuffed, presently sitting on his stomach. Stuck on his back, he twisted as best he could to look around them. "Are they gone?"

"Shhhhh." She hushed, holding a finger to her lips. "Just me and you right now. Me and you and me and you and me."

"Huh?" He almost squawked.

Looking at her more closely, he was struck by just how bland and featureless her face was. How completely plain she was. It was doubtful he'd have been able to pick her out of a crowd of three people.

"Do you ever get lonely?" She asked, turning to face out the front window. "There used to be so many people. So many thousands. Now there aren't. It's too quiet now. You must be lonely."

Claire turned down to face him again, cocking her head. "Aren't you lonely?"

Staring at her face, Kirito more and more got the sense that her face wasn't simply plain or forgettable, but that there was such an inherent _wrongness_ to it that he couldn't help but wonder how he hadn't noticed it before. Despite staring straight at her, he couldn't tell what shape her face had, the cheekbones or chin or anything, nor could he discern what style her vaguely brown or black or auburn hair was done in or the colour of her eyes. The only thing about her with any real definition was her wrist gun.

Bootsteps, heavy and deliberate. Coming from a distance and rapidly getting closer. They sounded like they were coming from above them in the same room but were distorted, as though he were hearing them through a tube. Craning his head around, Kirito couldn't see anyone else present but the two of them. Then, the whistling started. That same damnable tune.

Claire grasped him by the shoulders to keep him still, her vibrant brown eyes staring into his, her long, straight black hair hanging down around her soft and pretty face, almost touching his. "Shhhhhh. Be still now. He'll hear you."

"What's happening?!" He could feel the pressure returning to his face.

"He's hunting." She explained. Every few moments the whistling would pause, followed by a soft knocking, like knuckles wrapping on wood. It would resume, then stop again to repeat the process as the whistler moved around the room, testing the walls for any hiding spots. More than once the knocking was followed by a crash of splintering wood as he thought he'd found something.

Finally, there came the sound of knuckles knocking on bricks. There came another voice, hard to hear and indistinct. All Kirito could make out was that the two began to argue, the whistler chiding the newcomer for wasting something called a _tsar bomba_ and making them search more than they'd have otherwise needed to.

"That's a nice song." Claire said cheerfully once the whistling picked back up, the footsteps growing more distant. She began to softly sing in fluent English. "[~Rain-drops keep fal-lin' on my head.~]"

She began to bob her head along in tune, continuing even after the whistling had faded away. "[~But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be tur-nin' red.~] "

The absurdity of her behavior only compounded the already incomprehensible situation he found himself in. She frowned at his increasing discomfort.

"You don't like it?" A wave of static washed over them. The interdictor field being redeployed. As it passed, Clair's entire being blinked and distorted, portions of her face taking on features that didn't belong to her like a television trying to play two different channels simultaneously. "Why?"

They weren't in the house. They weren't in Shyotulus, nor even on the eighty fourth floor. Kirito stood on his feet on uneven, rocky slate, alone. _No, not alone. With a dear friend. The two of them crept along the ground, shadowing their marks. There were two of them walking side by side, their orange icons clearly visible to the people sneaking along behind them._

 _Taking cover behind an outcropping and stopping long enough for the two reds to get a little more distance on them, Kirito looked around for his friend. He almost couldn't see her, her cloak blending into the night like a shadow. The overcast sky was certainly helping, too. She ducked behind one of the few bushes that managed to survive here, giving him a few quick hand gestures which he replied to in kind._

 _The two of them had been shadowing the pair for a couple hours now, tracking them all the way from the town of Bonapuur to what they hoped would be their hideout. They were presently traveling along the side of Mount Ferriscove, the peak and upwards inclination to their collective left. By the name of the landmark, Kirito assumed the mountain would be useful for its iron deposits._

 _It hadn't been hard to follow them. Of the two of them, one was a shorter man a few inches over five feet. The other man was closer to six, and wouldn't stop whistling the same upbeat tune over and over on repeat, occasionally humming or breaking into open song._

 _The whistling man snapped his fingers in time with the beat, singing out loud again in English. "_ [~ _So I just did me some talk-in' to the sun._ _And I said I did-n't like the way he got things done-_ ] _"_

" _Would you shut up with that shit?!" His shorter partner snapped. "Two and a half god damned hours and you haven't missed a beat. Just shut up already!"_

 _The two walked in silence for a few seconds. The shorter man gave a sigh of relief. "Finall-"_

 _"[_ ~ _Cryin's not for me, 'cause, I'm ne-ver go-nna stop the rain by complainin'.~]_ " _What followed had to be the smuggest whistling Kirito had ever heard._

 _The shorter man threw his arms in the air. "God dammit!"_

 _"Forward." Came Her voice._

 _They were no longer trailing the pair of murderers. They were at their destination an hour later. About halfway up the squat mountain on the far side they'd come to an excavation. The mountain's current residents had carved into its side, creating a flat ledge large enough to hold some sort of warehouse or factory. By the smoke stacks, Kirito deduced it was probably a refinery. Not far from it was a wide tunnel burrowed into the rock. It was into this tunnel that the shorter man had disappeared into, while the whistling man lingered outside for a while before going into the refinery._

 _"So, which first?" Argo whispered. "The refinery or the mine?"_

 _The two of them were lying prone behind a jagged shoot of granite, peering over the ridge to spy on the complex through their binoculars. They were here to try and discover if there was a Coffin base in the area, what they were doing, and what methods would be best to assail it. Tracking the two members here had certainly answered the first question. The fact that it was halfway up a mountain made the last difficult. That left the two to figure out why they were here of all locations. Ore, obviously, but what type and for what purpose. The scale was too large to be for simple swords or armour._

 _As they observed, they could see several mine carts pushed along a track coming out of the tunnel and into the refinery. Empty carts were ushered back in on a parallel track. Even in the dead of night, they were working. Besides the refinery was a mound of coal from which workers frequently took from to fuel the furnaces. Whatever they were making, it was either big, numerous, or both._

 _Argo was here because this is what she specialized in. Since the world had started, she'd been an info broker. An info broker needed info to tell, which meant she often became a scout when gathering information for the front line, and a spy when dealing with info about other players. This was her element, and despite the danger she was clearly enjoying herself._

 _Kirito was here because this was all he could do. He'd been away from the fight for so long that he couldn't even get to the front on his own, let alone contribute to it. Aincrad was an MMO much like any other. You spend too much wallowing in your grief and doing nothing, and sooner or later everyone else will outgrow and outclass you. Thankfully, SAO relied just as much on personal skills and strengths as those augmented by the system. He was still fast, and he could sneak around almost as good as the best of them._

 _His lips turned downwards as he focused on one of the people pushing ore along the track. It was a man dressed in rags, chained to the very cart he pushed. As he watched, he could see a green icon appear over his head. With all that the Coffin was guilty of, it shouldn't surprise him to find them using slave labour._

 _"Well, Kii-bou?" Argo asked, grabbing his attention away from the captive worker._

 _"The mine will be more confined." Kirito answered thoughtfully, putting it out of his mind. "But the refinery looks pretty busy."_

 _"Yup." She waited for a few seconds, letting him pour over all they could see before prompting him again. "So, which one do we check first?"_

 _He mulled over the question. "Is there a right answer?"_

 _Argo smiled, putting down her own binoculars. "There is."_

 _She'd been doing this since he'd partnered up with her nearly six weeks ago. Kirito was fast and quiet, but didn't have any real experience as a vanguard scout or spy. For this reason, every excursion was full of lessons, every mission treated like a school field trip. Argo made it clear that she needed to teach him her skills, as well as encourage him to re-sharpen his own. The lightweight girl was not much of a fighter, preferring to avoid it if she could. Far as she was concerned, Kirito was now her apprentice, and once he was up to speed and fighting fit he'd make a fine partner and backup muscle._

 _It felt good, being useful again. Not just that, but being needed, even if it was a manufactured need. Argo needed him to get stronger and better, so he would._

 _He thought over previous lessons, weighing his answer. "We check the refinery. There's no reason to check the mine as is, since everything that comes out of it probably goes straight there. If this is a production plant then we want to investigate what their making, not what they're digging up."_

 _She patted his head. "Good answer, my young apprentice."_

 _Kirito was pretty sure he was older than her, but accepted the praise nonetheless._

 _He was about to make some quip in counterpoint when he shuddered, feeling a hand that was present neither here nor when brush against his cheek._

 _"Farther." She softly said._

 _"You say something?" Argo asked. No she hadn't. Argo hadn't said that because there had been nothing to reply to._

 _Time lurched forward until it was three in the morning. That was when the carts had stopped ferrying to and from the refinery, and another thirty minutes after that until the workforce started to filter out and into the mine, where they could only assume their sleeping quarters were located due to it being the more defensible position. There were more green players, slaved chain gangs five people long, shuffling into the tunnel at the command of a few reds._

 _The smokestacks kept spewing smoke, so they could only assume there were still some inside keeping the furnaces fed. Staying low and as out of sight as possible, the two crept through the night towards it. They'd spent the time observing the place noting the locations of four sentries and memorizing their paths. Gaining entry was easy enough. As they'd gotten closer they could see the refinery was rather ramshackle in construction like it has been thrown together as quickly as possible._

 _The entire complex had a low, barely functional quality to its design. It was though whoever had built it had only studied the system spawned refineries found within towns a few times and tried to copy it by eye. Mulling that over, Kirito figured that was probably exactly how it was designed. There were three levels inside. The floor had the furnaces and smelting area, the second was made of walkways and gantries where several pulleys and chains hung from tracks, and the third was what looked like a few offices for the overseers, elevated rooms reached by metal stairwells._

 _Only one of the offices was occupied, lit by what was probably a desk lamp. A now familiar melody filtered through its open window to be heard faintly through most of the complex. The occasional scratching gave the impression it was being played on a poorly maintained turntable gramophone._

 _There were four furnaces, burning low as two green players shoveled just enough fuel in them to keep them lit. The fronts were left open, pouring out enough orange light to throw everything else into harsh shadows that were easy to disappear into. They snuck by them. They weren't here for them, and they couldn't risk trying to free them. Maybe later, if they ever hit this place in force._

 _The refinery was also a warehouse, larger than they had initially guessed. They couldn't put together what they were making from the molds, casts and tools they found, but whatever they were they were larger than any swords. Skimming past these, they arrived at a storage area for the finished products._

 _"What are they?" Kirito asked, speaking low. The first lesson he'd been taught is whispering draws more attention than it avoids, often coming out too harsh or high pitched and standing out from any lower pitched background noise. Speaking low and soft was much better at avoiding detection. "Pipes?"_

 _At the end of the production line were several black iron tubes stacked in cross hatched columns five tubes tall. The tubes or pipes were fat and round, wider around than his head with thick walls. Each was about two meters long. Looking over them, he realized that each was crimped closed on one end with only one end of the pipe open._

 _"No." Argo placed her hand on a protruding nub near the crimped end of one tube. Looking at the others, they all had the same protrusion. The nub itself had a slim hole into the tube. "Look here, too."_

 _The tubes were not perfectly round. One side had two flattened recesses, as if they were meant to sit in something._

 _"They're cannons."_

 _The idea was at first glance ridiculous. SAO was a medieval-ish high fantasy. There were no guns in Aincrad. The only ranged weapons were thrown. There hadn't even been any bows until someone decided to try and make them manually, and their usefulness was at best debatable. Mulling it over, though, the more possible it became. Aincrad didn't have bombs by default, per se, but did have fireworks. The existence of fireworks meant that there were substances that could have explosive reactions. It then followed that if one had the right ingredients that they could make explosives. If you contained this reaction in the right manner, you could direct it. You could get a directed explosive, or even a cannon._

 _They both spun turned towards the upper offices when the music that had been playing on endless repeat came to a stop mid-verse. It picked back up as idle whistling where it had left off a few seconds later. The light clicked off, and they could hear the office door open and close, followed by heavy, plodding bootsteps on the metal stairs leading down to the ground floor. They stayed absolutely still, not at any angle to see them, but waiting and listening. They didn't dare move until they could her the outer door open and close shut, cutting off the whistling. The only sounds left were the burning furnaces and the shuffling of the two workers as they tended to them._

 _Kirito's head dipped forward as he felt something press into the back of his skull. From above, someone who he'd not met yet came into view, her body was parallel to the floor, so that when she curled at the waist to bring her eyes level with his, her head was upside down. Despite this, her hair hung sideways into his face. He stumbled, the conflicting senses of which way was supposed to be 'up' filling him with vertigo._

 _She smiled. "Farther."_

 _Kirito blinked and she was gone. Not only that, but he was somewhere else. Reeling around to get his bearings, he remembered where that was._

 _He'd figured they had all they needed, but here they were in the factory office, rifling through the whistling man's desk. The office was spacious. Large enough for a desk, a chair for any visitors and a sofa to one wall. In the far corner behind the desk was the gramophone, now silent. The room had one large window facing the factory floor and no outside windows. He watched Argo work, managing to both rummage and search while also putting everything right back where she'd gotten it. He was on watch, keeping an eye and ear out._

 _"What are we looking for?" The quicker they could leave, the better._

 _"Anything." She answered, flipping through a stack of papers. "Blueprints, production output, weapons capabilities, possible targets."_

 _By the man's desk, they could guess he was some sort of overseer for the plant. The desk was covered with a wide array of notes both scribbled and typed out from a large mechanical typewriter that sat at its center. There was so many sheets that the desktop was almost completely obscured underneath multiple layers._

Who would have guessed working for Laughing Coffin could have so much paperwork. _He mused._ Or that they'd even bother to make a paper trail in the first place.

 _The scattered pages of notes on the desktop caught his eye. Frowning, Kirito gave them another once over, finding that many of them were covered in the same things. The lyrics to the song he incessantly whistled, scribbled out repeatedly on page after page in sloppy, uneven text. Letting his eyes wander over the display, he saw one spot where the man had run out of paper, the manic writing continuing onto the desktop for a few lines. What was most strange was that his notes were all written in neat and proper Japanese, but all the lyrics to the song were messily scribbled in English, as though his hand had been shaking the entire time._

 _"Guy seems a bit touched, if you know what I mean." Argo commented, having noticed that as well._

 _He was still trying to figure out what it might mean, if it meant anything at all, when another voice spoke up in a harsh question, causing him to jump in surprise._

 _"What are you doing here?" Kirito turned to its source and saw Klein standing in the office corner._

 _Before he couldn't even begin to try and answer the question posed by a man who hadn't even been present during this moment, he could hear the door on the factory floor open, and someone whistling step inside. Kirito ducked his head down, too late as he heard the whistler interrupt his tune with two quick notes._

 _"Even farther."_

 _The office was a mess. The fabric of the sofa was split by several deep gashes, the desk chair had been toppled and tossed against the wall while the other one for visitors had been sliced in half. Pages and scraps of paper from the desktop had been scattered everywhere The office window had been shattered, broken inwards by the whistler as he'd leapt through it._

 _Shards of glass cracked underfoot as Kirito tried to comprehend the sudden shift in scenery. Elucidator and Lambent Light sang in his grip as he swung one after the other at his foe. Neither found their mark. In the whistler's right hand was a short sword. In his left was Argo. Her right arm was missing from the elbow down, severed clean. The other dangled limply, bending sharply in the middle of her wrist. The whistler's hand was clamped around her throat, lifting her off the floor and holding her kicking form out as a human shield in between moments of smashing her skull against the nearest solid surface._

 _They'd tried to teleport away, but the man had used some item that prevented it. First, they'd heard a sharp pop, then felt a wave of static. After that their teleports had failed to function. It didn't take much to put two and two together and deduce they'd managed to manufacture an interdictor crystal. Kirito had heard of them, but had never before been stuck within the effective radius of one._

 _The whistling man dodged away from his word strikes, grinning like a madman. With more room to work with, he raised the arm holding Argo up and brought her down hard into the corner of his desk. Her skull impacted the edge with enough force to break off a chunk of hardwood. Her kicking stopped as she was sent into a semi-conscious state._

 _Charging a few steps at Kirito, the whistler hefted her and threw her bodily at him. Not expecting his friend and newfound mentor to be used as a projectile, he froze, only thinking at the last second to move his swords out of the way to keep from skewering her on them. The whistler closed in with a powerful straight kick that planted itself directly into Kirito's sternum. His feet left the ground as he was sent flying into the back wall, then through it as the cheap plywood broke apart. As he fell, Kirito recalled that the office was on the third floor._

 _He landed flat on his back, knocking out any wind left him in after the kick. For a few seconds he lay there, gasping for air. The whistling man walked out of the hole he'd made in his office wall, falling straight down and landing on one foot as casually as though he'd merely descended the last step on a flight of stairs and not just taken a three storey drop._

 _As he was pulling himself to his feet, Kirito staggered with uneasy steps. He didn't realize how close he was to the ledge's edge until he was already over it. The refinery and the cliff side sailed away as he plummeted, landing on the hard rock below and tumbling wildly further. End over end he rolled and flopped, the world twisting and jumping chaotically around him._

 _Finally, he came to a hard stop against one particularly unforgiving boulder._

 _A quick self-check revealed that his right arm and leg were functional. He left arm was not, the shoulder dislocated and the fingers broken. His left foot was pointing behind him but was still in its socket, having wrenched around, torqueing the muscles and connective tissue with it. His Lambent Light was impaled through his gut from him landing on it sometime during the fall. Though it had left his grip, his Elucidator was thankfully within sight._

 _First, he removed his sword before it could kill him. Then the left arm was reinserted into its socket, which gave him two hands with which to twist his foot around. Each step of self-care was as painful as the last, his ruined body pushed back into a mostly functional shape._

 _Mobile again, albeit still ungainly so, he moved to retrieve his Elucidator. As he bent down to pick it up he could hear Her whispering once more._

 _"And then what?" Came the question, innocently paying no mind to any of his suffering._

 _"Kirito," Klein stepped into view from his right, "don't."_

 _It was too late. They two of them were standing atop the battlements of a city's outer wall. It was dusk, the last light of the sun already dying out. In the opposite direction came another source of light, just as orange and much closer. Close enough to smell, to hear, but too far to do anything about it. The stench of cooked flesh and the multitude of constant screams hit him all at once._

 _They were at Taft. Back where had still had still been a Taft as anyone would recognize it._

 _All along the battlements on either side of him were several groups of other green players, looking on in horror at the ongoing display._

 _"Kirito," Klein grabbed him by the shoulders, "look away."_

 _The command was unnecessary as well as pointless. He didn't have to look; he'd already seen this before. He tried not to think about it, but even with his eyes wrenched shut he could still see it, could still hear it._

 _Klein clapped his hands over Kirito's ears and forced him to face him. "Hey! Eyes on me, buddy!"_

 _Everything froze, the moment coming to a halt like a poorly focused picture. One of the other figures still moved. Her. She stood on her toes and peered off in the direction of the now thankfully silenced wails._

 _"But I want to see." She pouted. "What is it?"_

 _Klein turned to face her, reaching for the hilt of his sword._

 _She backed away, and the world tore apart like a damp oil painting._

Gasping in surprise and pain, Kirito was lying on his back, Claire cradling his head on her lap. He was on the living room floor in the two storey house in Shyotulus. He could see the fireplace she'd pulled him from.

Tears welled in his eyes as he began to weep from the unwanted memories that he hadn't wanted to recall.

He still couldn't move his legs. "What's happening!?"

"Shhhhh." She cooed. "You've been hanging upside down for too long."

It felt like his life had just flashed by. "Am-am I dying?"

She giggled, wiping away his tears. "No, but I guess that's not out of the question."

The Woman began to brush a hand through his hair, petting him. "You passed out. If this were the _real_ world you'd probably be dead by now, but you're not, so you're not."

"But, you-" he stammered, "I thought…"

He looked down himself at the fireplace again. He realized that he had no memory of her actually removing him from the chimney, and that he'd been stuck about as high up as the first floor's ceiling. He couldn't fathom a way she would have been able to easily pull him out. Come to think of it, he was far too clean. Both of them should be covered in soot and ash, but they were spotless.

 _"Yup." She confirmed. "You're still in there."_

 _"You're not Claire?!" An obvious question._

 _"I'm sorry," came the answer in the voice of Asuna. He looked up to see Her, with her unforgettable face, "but no."_

 _The pressure could be felt building in his face and head again. He tried to move, but found himself not only paralyzed, but constricted._

 _"I'm sorry you didn't like the song." She apologized again. She sulked a moment before lighting up with an idea. "I know another song. Here, I'll teach you."_

 _Bobbing back and forth, She began to sing, once again in perfect English. A slower melody but no less jovial. "[~_ _There is a flo-wer wi-thin my hear-]"_

 _Her verse was cut short as a katana speared itself out through her chest. Her song was turned into a distorted scream as she was hauled to her feet by a figure Kirito couldn't see. Rather anti-climactically, She shimmered and vanished. Straining his neck, Kirito could see Klein standing over him, dressed as he had been during their cavalry charge. Dressed as he had been after his first change, and before his second._

 _"Hold still." Klein reached down, grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up. His face and voice were stern. Angry, but not at him. "Hopefully I've waited long enough."_

 _Kirito found himself standing on functioning legs. There were so many questions to ask, but he found he had no air to ask them with. His ribs were broken, and what little air he could breathe burned in his lungs. The pressure continued to build in his head as the blood flowed up into it. Klein looked him over, searching. He then placed his hands on his shoulders and stared him straight in the eyes._

 _"Sorry if I haven't." Klein then roughly shoved his palm against his right shoulder. "Mind your head."_

 _At once, Kirito was falling both downwards and upwards while remaining perfectly still. A scant second later he felt the crown of his head impact something solid, and everything once again faded to black._

* * *

Author's notes: I promise this will start to make sense eventually.

For the scenes with Tolliver and crew, then the whistling man, I had a certain view on how poorly matched PvP would work in an MMO like Aincrad. In any normal MMO, when you come across a party or persons that can overpower you, you're normally in for a bit of griefing or a quick death and respawn. In Aincrad when that happens, you run for your life and it turns into a chase sequence. When someone _else_ shows up that proceeds to smear those guys across the walls, it turns into survival horror.

With the unusual gear carried by Tolliver's crew, we see another result of human ingenuity within the system. For most people, normal weapons suffice. If you want to capture someone, it helps to have something more specialized for the task.

Few more names, few more faces. Some are still alive, some are not. Some we've seen before, others we'll see again, some we've yet to see.

Kirito is on occasion unalone. This is not necessarily a good thing.

Generally speaking, everything being in italics or not does not mean something is real or not, or in the past or present, but whether or not Kirito is _aware_ that he's dreaming or remembering. It's whether or not he knows that's what's happening is in his dead. Trying to keep that consistent, but it's why at some points it switches over midscene, midsentence or midparagraph. Some exceptions may apply.

EDIT: I should state, spoken words within brackets [ ] are in a language other than Japanese, translated to english. It can be assumed everyone is speaking Japanese unless specified otherwise. The tilde ~ was to denote a 'sing-song' delivery. I had used musical notes, but they did not copy over to the site's word processor.

I forgot to mention originally that the singing was in English, not that that's _incredibly important_ or anything.

Anyways, thanks for reading.


	8. The Far Side Banks of Jordan

_"His shall be a crown of embers, and ashes his wake."_

- _The Chronicler_ -

Gradually, Kirito became aware of himself. He woke to find he was still upside down, his body bunched up in a vertical pile with the right side of his face pressed into something soft and powdery. Opening his other eye, he took a deep gasping breath only to expel it back out as a racking cough. His shoulder had come free of the brick that had snagged it, leaving him to drop headfirst into the fireplace. With his face firmly pressed into the hearth, his waking breath had brought in as much ash as air.

All he could see was two sides of the fireplace, as he'd landed facing inwards. Hands still cuffed behind his broken back, Kirito squirmed as best he could, trying to slither out into the room proper. This was hard to do when he still couldn't breathe. Every inhalation sucked in more old ash, and every cough disturbed and blew the rest into the air. Consigning to holding his breath despite the protests of his empty, burning lungs, Kirito jerked and wormed his head and shoulders, but the back of his head met the fireplace's grate.

 _Oh, come on!_ Lodged in a chimney, then trapped in the fireplace like an out of season, broken bodied Christmas visitor. One of the few benefits of most everyone being dead was that at least there were few people left to witness such a humiliating situation.

His still groggy mind finally caught back up to itself, recalling just what had happened to land him in his current predicament. Kirito renewed his efforts with greater vigour. To be found like this, he'd be completely helpless. Being murdered while crippled and stuck upside down in a fireplace was, as far as deaths go, rather poor.

Footfalls could be heard approaching, softly padding across the floor. Desperately, Kirito tried to twist and face what was coming, but all he got was a sliver of black in the corner of his eye. His efforts rendered futile, he began to panic.

"Get away from me!" He shouted, or at least he would have if he hadn't sucked in another lungful of ash in the attempt to get the air to speak with, turning the words into another fit of dry coughing.

Whoever had found him braced against the fireplace's iron grate and clamped a hand around his collar. The grip was weak, almost gentle, and Kirito was able to wriggle free for all of two seconds. Whoever was there gave a dainty sneeze from the ash he'd managed to kick up, metaphorically speaking, then grabbed back on tighter. A hot breath blew down the back of Kirito's neck.

 _"Relax."_ A calming voice in his skull, trying its best to sooth him. _"Be still."_

The soft-spoken suggestion was ignored. He had all of eternity to be still and scant moments left to struggle. Might as well flail while he still could. His head knocked into the grate twice as the figure tried to pull him free. There was a deep, bassy growl directly behind his head and they tried once more, managing to clear the obstacle. He was then unceremoniously dragged across the floor on his stomach. Getting his first good look at his attacker, Kirito noted that they had about twice as many legs as was humanly appropriate, which made sense since they were not attached to a human.

Once his entire body was free the grip on his collar was released, leaving Kirito's face to smack against the floor. Twisting his shoulders, he got a better look at the figure as she plopped down on the floor perpendicular to him. She gave a curious, inquisitive huff when he met her eyes.

He began to speak, broke into a weak, closed mouth cough and took a slow breath before continuing. "Yonaka? Hey, girl."

The panther was almost as filthy as he was, covered in ash, soot and dirt. The cat began the futile task of trying to wipe the ash it had gotten on its muzzle while pulling him out of the fireplace off onto her forelegs. Leaving the animal to it, Kirito looked about the room. It was a spacious living room with a big fluffy couch on the wall opposite the fireplace, wood panel walls inside the cabin interior, and a bearskin rug on the floor which had been shunted aside as he'd been dragged against it. There were a few gaping holes in the interior walls where someone had obviously torn into them with their bare hands as they searched for any hiding spots inside. Finally, the front door and frame were gone, broken outwards as whoever had failed to find anyone had taken their ire out on it during their exit.

Peering outside, he noticed just how late it was. The sky was covered in thick, dark clouds but he could still tell where the sun was, and a glance at his HUD's clock confirmed it was about four thirty in the afternoon. It had been morning when he'd gotten here; he'd been stuck in that chimney, unconscious for around eight or nine hours. Long enough, hopefully. With a weary sigh, Kirito let his head rest against the floor, waiting for his spine to mend now that it was lined up better.

"How long were you waiting, girl?" He didn't normally speak with his cat so conversationally, but he figured he could make an exception. It wasn't like she could answer him either way.

Kirito could only guess that she'd ran and hid while they'd been tearing through the town. That wasn't too surprising. Yonaka was certainly better at stealth than he'd ever been. From there, she'd probably made her way over at some point after they'd left and waited near the fireplace. Otherwise she would have simply led them right to him and he'd be too dead to wonder about such things, or worse. There were always things worse.

"They gone?" He asked, like he was speaking with a child. It felt silly, but he felt so relieved he didn't care. "Hmm?"

Done talking, he waited for his body to fix itself. It was another twenty minutes until he felt the shattered vertebrae at the base of his spine repair themselves and slide back into place with a sharp _click_ that sent a lance of pain up and down his body. The spike turned into a tingling sensation that ran down from his waist to his toes as his nerves rediscovered themselves, much like a limb that had fallen asleep. By that time his ribs had all come together with a series of smaller grinding cracks as they adjusted and re-adjusted. Kirito winced through it all. The feeling of your internals rearranging themselves on their own inside you isn't something you ever really get used to.

With his first smooth breath in a while, Kirito rolled over and sat up, bringing his cuffed hands lower down behind his back until they were behind his knees. One foot after the other was slipped through the chain's loop to bring his hands up in front of himself. From here he could open his menu and summon a new teleport crystal. He didn't want to step outside the house. Better to corridor out and come back to explore and find the next town later. Much later.

The brick fell into his waiting hand, he spoke the words to activate it, and it pulsed with a swell of humming light. It then flickered out and did nothing else. The pit in his gut was still growing deeper when he heard it again. Felt it again.

The distant pop, the wash of humming static and the sinking sense that one is not alone.

 _Shit!_

It made sense. They'd probably found the techen, the two drell and the three horses. If they'd already taken care of Tolliver and his squad, it didn't take a genius to notice they'd missed someone. To think that they'd been here for the last eight hours and hadn't found him or Yonaka, Kirito couldn't help but feel incredibly lucky, while at the same time experience a newfound dread at their determination.

Instinctively, he reached over his head for his swords, but they were in his inventory. The hammer was long gone. With a few button presses he summoned his paired swords, their reassuring weight appearing on his back. A few tugs as the cuffs made it clear that whatever metal they were made from, they were not about to come apart from just that. The cuffs were thick enough to be closer to bracers than bracelets, and were connected by a short, sturdy chain with only about ten centimeters of play between them.

A set of lock picks was pulled from one of his pockets, but since he was trying to pick a set of locks that were currently resting around his wrists, he couldn't get a good angle to work with.

Muttering a curse as he stooped down to retrieve the picks after dropping them for the second time, he was still considering whether or not he should use any heavier tools that might prove louder to use when Yonaka darted up to attention, her head pointed towards where the front door used to be. Ducking down and listening, he could just barely pick up a set of footsteps.

The presence was confirmed as a squad of town guards spawned somewhere outside. The sounds of battle soon followed. Not wanting to waste the distraction, Kirito quickly made his way through the house to the rear door. A quick check didn't show anyone that he could see, and he exited the building. With a whispered string of commands he ordered his cat to stay quiet and stay close.

Once he was outside he was able to get a better picture of the state of Shyotulus. They'd been searching this entire time, eventually settling on a scorched earth approach. There wasn't a single undamaged structure, with most either halfway collapsed or reduced to rubble and ash. The system would replace or respawn enough buildings to meet the minimum requirements once they'd all left and the area could despawn, but everything else, everything that had been made by or owned by players at any time would remain as they were. Shyotulus had been razed.

Keeping low, he moved quickly and quietly, Yonaka staying at his side. Overhead, dozens of raven black birds flitted this way and that, swopping low on occasion. They were scattered across the sky, flying with no unified direction but a shared airspace within a portion of town thankfully nowhere near him. Despite their best efforts, the layer of grey silt cracked underfoot as they made their way.

A glimpse of the town's center gave him pause, distant as it was. At his present location, it was about as far away as the nearest gate. If they had stayed here this long, they no doubt would have eyes on the perimeter, but the teleporter was still too obvious. Ducking into the remains of a half burned building, he opened his menu. The blue glow could easily give him away, broadcasting his location to anyone looking for him out in the open. Best to use it out of sight.

He summoned a spyglass, a few small recording crystals, a couple impact flares and something called a 'chaser'. Knowing the side-effects, he preferred not to use the last item, but he didn't know how long he might be running for and technically the last bouts of sleep he'd gotten in the last day and a half were passed out upside down and a few hours upright on horseback. Neither had been particularly restful. Instead of feeling reinvigorated, all he was was sore.

As ready as he could be, Kirito poked his head out of the ruined building. Finding no immediate threat, he led his cat outside, making sure to hug the buildings close and stay out of sight. They came to a spot where he could see through to the town center unobstructed. Thinking it might be worth making a run for the teleporter, Kirito raised the spyglass to his eye. As the only truly indestructible thing in town save for the wall and gates, it stood as a pristine archway in the burned and smoldering center. Focusing as best he could, he took note of the arrangement of weapons that had been set on display. In a loose ring around the archway, four weapons had been stabbed down into the ground. He could make out a rapier, a gladius, what might have been a shotel, and what he could recognize as Tolliver's odachi. They always did like to leave a calling card for whomever might happen across it.

His eyes eventually fell upon someone he almost hadn't noticed. Standing to the right of the arch was a lone figure. He was standing with his back turned to him, stock still, arms outstretched in a rigid T like a crucifix or a scarecrow, with palms held upwards. Occasionally, one of the ravens above would circle over him, dip down and land in one of his open palms, then take off again. Stabbed into the ground beside him was a spear of curious design, having two smaller handles jutting out from the side near the middle of the shaft. It was not planted by the point but by the pommel.

Kirito couldn't help but stare at the strange sight. He wasn't really doing anything. Just standing there still as a statue. Zooming in his spyglass, he could put together the man's odd choice in attire. He wore no armour, but appeared to be wearing a fine, pitch black business suit of modern design. Except, the longer he looked, the more it was apparent that something was off about it. Something wrong that he couldn't piece together. His view was not in the best focus, but the fabric appeared to subtly ruffle and ripple in the breeze in a perplexing, almost organic manner.

The strange figure's proximity to the teleporter certainly made the choice for him. He was about to lower the spyglass and head for the nearest gate when there came a yelling from back towards the house he'd previously been stuck in. It only made sense that they'd have seen the trail of ash from where he'd been dragged along the floor. The strange figure began to move, whistling a set of long high notes loud enough that even Kirito could hear them. It was so high that it felt like Kirito was almost hearing a dog whistle, the sound high enough to pass what bordered what he should even be able to register. The scattered birds above began to caw and circle more closely above the suited figure. Another set of whistles, a complicated combination of drawn-out warbling notes, and the birds flowed as one towards the house where Kirito had come from.

Bad that they knew he was still here, good that their attention would be away from where he was. He took a few more steps towards the town perimeter, and stopped as the grey silt cracked underfoot. Looking down, he could see that he'd left a clear line of footprints. There could not be an easier set of tracks to follow. Cursing internally, he knew there wasn't anything he could do about it, the stuff was like walking in fragile clay, and looked like filthy porcelain.

Needing to throw them off his very literal trail, Kirito activated one of the recording crystals and threw it as hard as he could deeper into town. After about five seconds it began to play a loud metallic clattering, a recording Kirito had made of himself vigorously and repeatedly kicking a steel door. The high-pitched whistles sounded again and the flock adjusted, taking the bait.

The skies above him were clear and attention was elsewhere for the moment. Kirito moved with greater haste, needing to put as much distance as he could between them as quickly as he could. They clearly had not found his trail yet, or the distraction would not have worked nearly as well as it had. He ducked into another building on the way, exiting through a window, anything to throw off the trail. Spotting a collection of existing footprints, he took the opportunity to tangle his own amongst them. There must have been four sets of human prints and one volk, with enough distance between each footfall to imply the former had all been running. He jogged along them, placing his own feet within the largest set. Even Yonaka was able to piece together what he was doing, padding along in the volk's prints.

Once he was satisfied that he'd sufficiently masked his trail amongst the hunting party's own tracks, he peeled off again.

He froze.

Kirito had arrived at their destination. There was a wide depression in the silt and dirt from something having landed heavily, the impact having hit hard enough to throw chunks of silt and even dirt up. It had then bounced once, landed again a few meters later and then slid for several more, leaving a long gouge. From there, a set of sloppy tracks, consisted of a combination of horizontal depressions to the right of a long, wide line. Tracks from a broken individual, dragging themselves away with one arm. Despite the distant voice in his mind, he felt compelled to follow them. It didn't take long; she'd only made it a little over ten meters. Finally, he came to where they ended, where the tracks of the hunters met those of the prey. A wide, torn area. A futile struggle. He'd found where Claire had landed. He hadn't been the first.

 _Don't._ Came the worried whisper, already too late. _Run along._

They'd left most of her gear, having no need of it themselves. In the dirt lay her wrist cannon, the most recognizable piece before him, but not the only one.

 _Kirito!_ The familiar feminine voice was louder, but not loud enough.

They'd also left her weapon harness, several stakes and charges for the cannon still in their bandolier. There was her jacket, singed by the blast that had thrown her here. The left sleeve reduced to burnt shreds. His breath began to quicken.

 _Don't look!_ The voice was so loud that it felt like a pounding within his skull. The air entering and leaving his lungs with greater rapidity.

There was her belt, lying beside her pants. Not far from these were the torn remains of a soft white, distinctly feminine undergarment.

 _Kirito!_ The shout came as a pulse that left his head rocking forward as though he'd been punched in the back of the skull.

He reeled towards the voice behind him.

"Kirito, what did you find?" Klein asked.

They The two of them were in a large room. A very bad room. It was roughly six meters wide and seven long and forever carved into a portion of his memory he never wished to visit. Being here, he could feel his mind try and clamp down. It hurt his head but he was still here, wherever that was. He didn't really know. Getting hard to think clearly. The room had nice wood panels walls covered in pictures that hurt to look at, a floor made from stained oak covered in a luxurious, lush scarlet rug with golden trim. There was a table, except it wasn't a table. Not really. Tables weren't normally made from solid steel, and shouldn't have restraints built into them.

 _"Kirito._ " He repeated, forcefully. _"What did you find?"_

Looking down to the floor besides the not-table, he had indeed found something. A bundle of torn cloth, white with flower print. Kirito stooped down to pick it up. It registered vaguely that it was heavier than it should be, more solid and metallic. His attention was drawn to a woman at the back of the room opposite the door, dressed in a burgundy dyed skintight bodyglove. She was pinned to the wall by the bifurcated spear whose spearhead was like a wide tuning fork, one tine punching through her larynx and the other having broken through her upper front teeth into her mouth. He ignored her gurgling as she tried to priy the weapon free. He began to walk over to Klein, unfurling the bundle to see what it was.

" **Kirito!"** He jolted as the voice bellowed in his head like a lance through his brain. A Klein that was neither Klein nor here.

He wasn't in the room. He was in Shyotulus. In front of him, his cat looked up into his eyes with a concerned, confused expression.

Kirito was likewise perplexed. In his hands was a wrist cannon and a bunched-up bandolier full of ammunition, and he was several paces away from somewhere else. He had no memory of picking the items up, nor where he'd gotten them from. Turning to look over his shoulder, he saw the tussled area of torn silt, deducing that that must have been where the others had caught up to Claire. He could see a few other items left behind, but he didn't focus on them. No time, he had to keep moving. With no idea how to operate the cannon he had no use for it at the moment. With a few waves of his hand the it and its bandolier vanished into his inventory.

Hoping he hadn't spent too long standing around with the wrist gun, Kirito resumed his trek towards the outer wall. Hugging the buildings, he snuck along as out of sight as possible. Just as quiet, thankfully, Yonaka crept along behind. The cat was smart enough to know when to be silent. The entire time his head was on a swivel, searching all around for any signs of movement or trouble. Apart from the few people he'd already seen, no others presented themselves. Contrary to feeling secure in their absence, the longer he went without seeing anyone the more his paranoia grew. His eyes darted this way and that, checking and rechecking every corner for anyone that might round them, every rooftop for any observers, every shadow for someone lying in wait.

Moving slowly and cautiously, it took nearly an hour to creep to the nearest gate. Stopping in between two adjacent cabins near the town's edge, he searched around the western gate for anyone keeping watch. There must be someone keeping an eye on the gates. How else would they know whether or not he'd already escaped? There had to be someone. Where were they?

 _Taking too long._ Kirito wiped at his tired eyes, fatigue setting in. _Need to go._

Matching the design aesthetic of the rest of the town, the outer wall was a nine meter tall wooden palisade, or stakewall, made from the trunks of fenshin trees, which looked to be on average about twenty centimeters thick and resembled grey hued pinewood. The gates themselves were made from planks of the same kind of wood, held together and braced with iron brackets. As it was still day time, the gates were wide open. Kirito was still searching for watchmen when he heard the high-pitched whistling from far in the distance behind him. Turning back to where he'd come from, he could see the circling birds flow in his direction.

They must have picked up his trail again.

Another quick scan of the area near the gates still showed no movement. Reasoning that if there were anyone nearby he would have spotted them by now, and with the flock of birds heralding the approach of the others, he knew he couldn't stay where he was any longer.

 _Screw it_. Kirito whispered a few quick commands to his cat instructing her to stay close behind him and only attack in reaction to anything attacking himself. Running was surprisingly ungainly with his hands cuffed in front of him. In short order he was at the gates, passing through unmolested. He twisted bodily, hazarding a long look over his shoulder as he ran, still unable to see anyone, though the birds were drawing closer. He was so focused on them that he didn't see he was stepping out into a downwards incline until he was pitching forward. It was a steep but short slope, leaving him sliding down on his stomach face first, ploughing a furrow in the silt.

Raising himself to his hands and knees, he noticed that the silt was much thicker outside of town, made of coarser, darker grey material. Looking up, he was given pause. He knew now why he couldn't see any trees from inside Shyotulus.

There were no trees.

Crushing some of the fragile material in his hand, he realized what the silt was as it crumbled between his fingers. It was ash, no doubt turned into a slurry by rainfall, drying into the plaster like material which covered the ground and everything else. Once the area had been depopulated and saved into an archived state, it would not rain again to wash it away, and nothing new would grow beneath it until the area was loaded in long enough for that to happen naturally.

In place of a massive forest of six storey trees was a seemingly endless ocean of ash with only the short, blackened remains of scattered burnt stumps and trunks to give any indication that there had ever been one in the first place.

The entire forest had been burnt to the ground, leaving a bleak landscape in its place. Worse yet was that this meant that he would find no cover in it. There was nowhere to hide.

No time to do anything but get up and run.

Taking to his feet, Kirito moved as best and as fast as he could. The ashen ground cracking loudly underfoot. The layer of grey was deceptively flat, in truth being of uneven depth. In some places the ash was shallow enough that it was like a thin film, and in others he found his foot plunging in up to his ankle. In his desperate run, he frequently stumbled, and outright tripped more than once as his feet snagged on something beneath the surface.

His breath burned in his lungs as he pumped his legs for all their worth. His exhaustion and sleep deprivation were starting to make themselves known, his steps getting sloppier, feet clomping down too heavily as he swayed and staggered onwards. If it weren't for the adrenaline rush from his impending horrible death, he figured he'd have flopped forward and been fast asleep.

Before they'd even made it a kilometer, both he and his pet were just about covered in ash. If anything, it should at least make them harder to spot. With any luck he could get outside the interdictor field before they caught up to him. These hopes were dashed not a minute later as the sounds of the flock grew closer. The cawing of the nearest birds took on a different tone, harsher and louder. Looking up, Kirito could see a few of them circling directly overhead, announcing his position to their master.

As he crested another short hill, he turned back to the now distant Shyotulus, still able to make out two volk exiting the gates at full speed, spurred on by their riders. He had a good lead on them, but at the speed they were moving that wouldn't last very long. They vanished from view as both he and they descended from the peaks of their respective knolls, but it didn't matter whether or not they could see him so long as the ravens above were circling him. Even if he evaded their eyes, he was leaving a trail too obvious for anyone to miss.

Outrunning them on foot was out of the question. His corridor crystal was dug out of his satchel and the needed words were uttered, but just as before it sputtered out. They were still being interdicted. The trouble with invisible fields was that it was difficult to discern where the borders were. For all he knew he was almost at the edge, or another couple kilometers away.

His hands almost reached for his swords, but cuffed as he was, he could only wield one, and even with both he was well aware that he'd at best go down swinging. He couldn't fight them.

In the featureless ashen expanse, his eyes desperately searched for anything of note. Anywhere to hide. Anything that might prove useful.

While on top of another hill, Kirito slowed enough to turn around again and peek over it, trying to see where his pursuers were. It didn't take long to find them, much, much closer. In another few minutes or so they'd be upon him. The other side of the hill turned out to be a vertical, three or four meter drop. Without time to go around and no free hands to climb, Kirito didn't jump so much as drop.

The ash was deeper in the low points, and the nearly two feet deep ash cushioned his fall well enough. Right after Yonaka landed beside him. He was tired, out of breath, and knew that simply trying to keep running as he was was pointless. Leaning forward and bracing his hands on his knees, Kirito panted, taking a moment.

Things were bad. Dire, even. With the birds overhead, his hands bound and his pursuers on mounts, it wouldn't really matter if he kept running or stayed where he was. He'd have to deal with them here, or a little bit farther ahead. Either scenario could only end poorly.

If something didn't present itself soon, he'd not have much longer to live.

Still panting, Kirito turned his gaze heavenward. "Listen, I know I've never been much of a praying man, but if you're still up there…I don't know, looking down and watching or something right now,"

He raised his hands up in a pair of fists, pointing them skyward into the middle of the circling birds, with one particularly expressive finger fully extended on each of them. "fuck you, Kayaba."

 _Keep moving._ Urged a voice in his head that might have been his.

"Where?" Came his answer, aloud. He allowed his arms to flop back down to his sides, likewise lowering his gaze to find Her standing a few meters away in front of him.

His eyes flicked down to see she was standing on top of the ash as if it were solid ground. For some reason having the vision be so obviously false made it much less stressful to behold. Probably just focused on larger, more immediate problems. He didn't have any other options, and talking to himself was the least of his concerns at the moment. "Well?"

She curiously raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to one side. "Hmm? Where well what?"

"Huh?" That was no help. Although it's not like he expected much from the apparition. "I don't know where to go."

She raised her arm, pointing a finger straight at him. "How about in there?"

It took him a second to realize She wasn't pointing at him, but at something behind him. Turning around, he could see that the short cliff he'd jumped down from opened into a cave, the mouth of which was a bit less than two meters around, and whose downwards path he could not see the end of.

"Yeah, that'll do." He said to himself, nonplussed. Kirito turned back to Asuna and started to rub the back of his head. "Um. Please go away now."

"But I want to help." She pouted.

This was getting awkward. "Go away!"

He pinched the bridge of his nose ins frustration. "Why am I still talking?"

Before She could say anything, he turned away and headed into the cave. "I'm not talking to you, to _me_ …go away."

"Okay, but I'll be around if you need me." She called back, her cheer having returned.

He resisted the urge to check over his shoulder. That'd be crazy. And as far as he was concerned he wasn't crazy.

Kirito's present concern was how much the cave would actually matter. He'd been worried at first that it would be nothing more than a simple burrow or dead end, but as he ventured inside it was revealed to be quite expansive. Not just a cave, but a winding path leading down into a deep complex. The birds did not follow him inside, though he did see a few land near the cave mouth, cawing away at him. At least the cave mouth was small enough that the volk shouldn't be able to enter. They'd have to follow him in on foot, which gave him much needed time.

After the path took a couple of turns, the light from the outside no longer reached him. This might work, if it was large enough to lose himself in. He just had to get as deep as he could, hide and hope for the best. Opening his menu, then his map, he could see that he'd discovered somewhere called 'Verloren Labyrinth'. That was promising. With a name like that it was entirely possible that this place was large enough to be its own zone.

The soft blue light from his menu failed to illuminate his path, barely letting him see his own feet, and he dismissed it. Faintly luminescent moss covered patches of the walls, floor and ceiling, giving the area a gentle green colour.

The path soon forked, then forked again and again. Kirito chose a random direction each time, continuing almost literally blindly forward. The corridors soon grew in size large enough that the glowing moss couldn't light his way or even give an accurate sense of scale save for the barest of outlines. Opening his menu, he summoned a hand lantern. It was of an old-fashioned design, with a worn iron body, simple handle, and an oil reservoir inside. It had a round opening, lighting only directly in front of him. Once lit, it gave a meager but sufficient beam.

Wiping at his eyes with his free hand, he tried to resist the urge to yawn. The effort became moot as Yonaka's maw stretched wide and it became contagious. With better eyes than his, the cat had been much more surefooted, padding along in an almost casual, though likewise weary manner. The dark certainly didn't help. With the adrenaline running out, his feet grew heavier, and he had to make an effort not to drag them.

A harsh _clink_ caused him to snap his eyes open. Clenching his hand, he realized he'd dropped his lantern. He'd also come to a halt. Thankfully, the lantern had not tipped or spilled. How long had he been standing there, he could not say, hovering on the edge of sleep. Maybe a few seconds, maybe minutes.

He couldn't keep moving like this, he had to stop. Had to rest.

 _No._ He wasn't sure whose voice had said it, but it didn't matter. On this, they agreed.

Kirito reached into one of his pouches and pulled out the item he'd most hoped to avoid using. It was a cylindrical tube, made of a clear glass-like crystal, five centimeters wide and about a dozen long, gilded with protective steel trim. One end was covered in a long steel cap, and the other ended with a flat handle. Inside was an opaque, almost blood red fluid.

The chaser. Another invention of Klein's. Kirito steeled himself. He'd seen the effects of the item before. He knew he was not going to like this. With one hand, he held the chaser, and with the other he started to remove its cap, but paused.

 _No._ He'd never actually used one of these before, and wasn't entirely certain what it would be like. _No, not yet._

Kirito thought to put it back into his pocket, but after a moment's consideration opened his menu and deposited it into his inventory. His situation was bad enough without adding uncertain, unstable factors. Bending down to pick up his lantern, he reached out his left hand to brace it against the wall, but misjudged the distance and stumbled. He caught himself as Yonaka positioned herself so that his hand landed atop her head, the muscles in her neck flexing as she took his weight on her crown. Using the offered hand rest, he leaned on her as he steadied himself.

Yonaka was a fairly large cat, but her head still only came up a little higher than his waist, too short for him to really lean on while he was standing, and with his hands stuck together he had to hold them both up to use the lantern.

He gave her head a gentle pet before grabbing the lantern and standing back up. "Good girl."

She gave a short, rumbling purr in reply.

With any luck, he'd already lost them, though that was an unsafe assumption without knowing just how big this cave system was. On the off chance it would work, he tried his corridor crystal again, to no success. They still needed to find a suitable place to hole up.

He ambled onwards. Had to keep moving. No doubt they would have found the cave and come in after him. They passed through a few chambers of varying size, from the size of a garage to those closer to that of a warehouse. He was concerned for a time about any mobs that they might come across, but nothing hostile made itself known. Not all places in Aincrad were full of monsters.

Coming to another fork, he pointed his lantern to the right, illuminating a path that quickly curved out of view. Pointing his lantern to the left revealed it was not a fork, but a dead end. An alcove. Full of bats.

As one, they took flight, suddenly filling the cave with flitting wings and high-pitched chirps and screeches. They were easily the size of housecats, swarming all around him. Kirito could feel several of them latch onto him, delivering a multitude of little nipping bites. Thankfully, his clothes were too tough and their mouths too small to be of any real harm, but that didn't stop him from panic-waving his arms and instinctively trying to get away liked he'd just kicked a hornet's nest.

Unfortunately, waving the lantern around had the effect of tipping the oil reservoir, and when it smacked into one of the bats it spilled, creating a brief but bright flame. The flock retreated from the short-lived conflagration, fleeing into the corridor to the right, save for one that had been doused in burning oil, and another that had been clutched onto Kirito's back until Yonaka sank her teeth into it and tore it off.

The spilled oil burned out, leaving him standing in darkness with only the faint light from the moss, panting at the sudden jump scare. If nothing else, he was at least sure that he was very much awake, as well as a little grateful that in Aincrad it was impossible to soil oneself.

The moss glowed just brightly enough to walk by as he resumed his trek. With only one option other than doubling back, he followed into the corridor the bats had flown into. The way took a quick twist right, then left again before opening into a much larger chamber. It was easily the largest one he'd seen thus far in the mazeway, possibly even the main area. Not just a cave, but closer to a true cavern.

The area was around four stories in height in most places, with some reaching higher or dipping lower. The floor was entirely uneven, much like the ceiling. There was a variety of stalagmites and stalactites, reaching up or down, respectively, some of which met and formed into columns. The actual size of the room was hard to judge, as it was dark enough and obstructed enough that he could not see the far walls.

This would do. Now he just had to find a decent nook or cranny to secret himself into until he could warp out.

Walking slow and steady on the uneven floor, Kirito entered the cavern, but had to stop when the darkness made it too difficult to find his way. A bottle of fuel oil was summoned, and the lantern's reservoir was refilled. His hand dug into his pocket, retrieving his lighter. Before he could use it, he was surprised again to see a human figure directly in front of him. It was Asuna. She wasn't dressed in her guild uniform, as she had been at the cave mouth, but in a more casual set of clothes. He recognized them as the set he'd buried. Unlike before, he felt the breath catch in his throat.

She didn't say anything, but was holding a finger over her lips in the universal 'hush' gesture. Kirito could only stare, transfixed. Then he blinked, and she was gone.

That's when he heard it. By the shift in Yonaka's posture he could be sure it wasn't imagined.

Though he couldn't see them, there was still the sounds of bats flying about the cavern, but there was something else that now caught his attention. Grunts of effort. Coarse shouts. Whatever it was, it was making no effort to be stealthy, but its voice was vaguely human. Close enough to be recognized as such, but far enough to be instantly unnerving. Most worrisome was that the sounds were not at all distant.

The lantern was left unlit, and the handle fastened to a clasp on his belt. Slowly, Kirito crept towards higher ground. By the time he and his cat had perched themselves on a relatively flat-topped boulder, the sounds had stopped. He lied down prone, Yonaka likewise taking the queue and hugging the ground. Eyes searching back and forth over the craggy terrain for any signs of movement besides the bats, he spotted it. Rather, he spotted _her_.

She was about thirty or forty meters away, her attention directed elsewhere. She looked to be trying to sneak somewhere to the left. Curious and wary, Kirito pulled out his collapsible spyglass to get a better look.

The girl was taller than average, but with a thin, gangly build and long legs. Her straight black hair hung in limp tangles past her shoulders. She would have been slightly taller than Kirito if it were not for her posture, which was hunched, heavily so, with her elbows held tucked against her sides and her hands hanging in front of her near chest level. Her body was that of a fifteen year old, making her probably around nineteen or so in reality, lit dimly from below by the glowing moss around her on the floor. Now that he was looking at her, a red icon blinked into existence above her head.

She was also completely naked, her pallid, pale skin covered only in caked on filth.

The woman was creeping towards one of the columns, the reason why becoming clear when the bat that had been resting there took off as she got too close. She leapt after it, closing the distance and grabbed onto it. A sound which could only be described as an inhuman, high-pitched squeal escaped her lips as she gave a big, toothy grin. The grin then opened wide, and she bit into the struggling creature's belly. With visible effort, she started to tear into it, only stopping as the bat bit her in return.

The woman gave a rough, frustrated growl, releasing it with her jaws and holding one of its wings in both hands. The housecat sized bat was then heavily and repeatedly swung against the nearest rock until it stopped moving. Smiling again, she issued a bizarre, inhaling laugh that was closer to a series of squeaking clicks, then made to bite into her prey when it derezed, vanishing into shards and voxels. Like an emotional rollercoaster, she stamped her foot and sobbed. Her menu was waved open with shaking hands, and the animal part that had dropped was summoned back into the world into her waiting palms.

A bat wing longer than her forearm took form. A piece made from not much more than leathery skin, bones and hair. One might have assumed it was delicious, judging by the enthusiasm with which she began to greedily devour it. Kirito could hear the little bones sickeningly breaking and crunching all the way from where he lay.

 _What._ The prospects for this room being a good hiding spot had just become void.

"You need to keep moving." She said, directly to his right, dressed again in her guild uniform. Kirito ignored the obvious comment.

In her rush to eat the bat wing, the woman more than once nipped at the hands holding it. The wing's flesh was tough, and it took visible effort to tear into. Then, she did something which Kirito found altogether horrifying. When biting into the wing, the woman managed to catch her own pinkie finger up to the first knuckle. Instead of releasing the digit, she made no indication of noticing the mistake, and crunched down. Twisting her head, Kirito could hear her snap her own finger off, with naught but a pained chirp in acknowledgement of her actions.

She didn't stop eating. The woman simply chewed, swallowed and continued.

 _Shit._ This behavior was becoming worrisomely recognizable, confirmed when she gnawed off the rest of the finger as though it was a part of the rest of her meal.

To put it simply, the nervegear was not a perfect device. To put it slightly less simply, the human brain is incredibly complicated, and different people reacted to it differently. The nervegear could induce and simulate every sensation the human body should be able to experience. In the world of Aincrad, one could eat the best of foods, sample a variety of intoxicants both based on those in the real and those that only existed inside, and even partake in and experience physical, intimate encounters. Frankly, Kirito had to assume that the only way the game could have passed the ratings board had been to conceal some of these features, like the feature that allowed it to microwave people's brains, or the fact that nobody's genitals were pixelated. The end result was that the nervegear influenced the brain and the release of the bodies chemicals in a myriad of ways, and its compatibility with its users was not a binary value, but a measurable scale with a few bizarre offshoots.

On one extreme, some people were not compatible at all and couldn't even play any games on the nervegear due to it failing to properly shut off the connection to their real body, resulting in them flopping around outside the game whenever they tried to move. Some people were just enough to play, but all their senses were dulled. 'Mutes', they were called.

Rarer still were those on the other extreme, who were _too_ compatible. For these people, all their sensory feedback was the same as though it were real. While this made for a more immersive experience, nobody wants to play a combat game with a one to one pain ratio. For them everything, every cut, stab or slash, every breaking bone felt exactly like the real thing. There weren't many of them, Kirito only being aware of about fifteen. Understandably these people tended to avoid combat entirely, to the point of being referred to as 'bystanders' or 'spectators'.

Most people were generally somewhere in the middle ground, though Kirito was aware that he placed towards the more over compatible end, though yet not to any extreme. The game's pain feedback was _supposed_ to hurt to some degree, just not to the point where it made you want to stop playing. After all the injuries he'd sustained during the last four years, Kirito couldn't imagine anyone willingly playing with full feedback. Another problem was that people's compatibility, save for the mutes, had gradually increased over time. It was possible this was due to everyone's use of the system for a prolonged period of time that would have never come up in normal testing, but after four years, everyone had slipped farther up the scale. Perhaps the nervegear was adjusting to their brains, or their brains were adjusting to the nearvegears. It didn't matter, the results were the same. The longer the game lasted, the more real that it felt, the more that it hurt.

Then, there were the offshoots. Curiosities. These had stranger side effects. There were several people that were unable to get drunk or otherwise inebriated ingame, a few whose avatars were unable to become aroused or climax, and at least three people who had strangely enough become left handed.

The curiosities were just that, curiosities, but harmless. Then there were those less fortunate even than the bystanders. Most relevant was a particular type that playtesting the system had shown was estimated to only affect one out of every seven hundred players. For these people, the function to affect the release of the chemicals used to induce a feeling hunger or fullness malfunctioned. They could eat, but receive no satisfaction from it. If anything, it made them hungrier.

In normal circumstances, this wouldn't have been much of a problem at all. The ability to even feel hunger and fullness independent of their real bodily senses was an odd thing to design, though in retrospect one might consider it a red flag. Normally they and anyone else would just log out of the game, complain about it as a bug and wait for it to be patched. With everyone trapped, this was not an option, an even though their real bodies were obviously being sustained, that feeling did not carry over into the game.

For these people, they only knew that they were hungry because the nervegear induced that sensation, and that every time they ate, they made it worse, resulting in an endless feedback loop. Despite the odds, the population of Aincrad included at least forty seven of these individuals, and they'd all spent the last four years with the game trying its best to convince them that they were starving.

For a time, they had formed a support group amongst themselves. Something to keep them all sane, to keep their minds off the ever-present maw in their guts that could not be filled, the constant gnawing at their insides. At some point they had all stopped sleeping, the hunger pains keeping them awake, destroying the refuge they might find in rest.

Then, a few particularly cruel individuals had the bright idea of throwing a feast for them. It was held in a building outside of town, and all of them were invited. By that point they had not had the will left to refuse. Forty six people had attended the event, their hosts providing a smorgasbord of all the best foods one could make. It did not last long. As they ate, the pit grew deeper. At some point the food naturally ran out.

Forty six people had attended, but by the time that anyone had arrived in response to a horrifying series of PMs calling for help, there were only nine, and not a host to be found. They'd run out of food, but in their fervor the feast had continued.

Kirito had not been among those that had broken up the event, but Klein and his Fuurinkazan were. His friend had been quiet for a long while after, and none of them ever spoke of it. Only three of the remaining attendees were ever captured, though they had escaped during the prison purges.

The nine were from them on referred to as The Consumed, as their unceasing, insatiable hunger was all that was really left of them, consuming them from within, their minds eaten away until little else remained. The nervegear and Aincrad hadn't just broken them, but remade them into a special kind of monster, pitiable, but no less dangerous.

They had been rendered well and truly mad.

"Kirito," She was still sitting on the rock beside him, "they'll be in the cave by now, searching."

 _I know that._ He didn't reply out loud. He needed a moment to think.

She became more insistent. "They're going to find you if you stay here, and if even if they don't, you should leave her alone. She's beyond your help."

That was an odd thing for Her to say. Regardless, he scratched roughly at the back of his skull, whispering at Her under his breath. " _Not a good time. Go away!_ "

She looked to be about to contest the issue, but relented, vanishing when he next blinked. Looking back through the telescope, he saw the Consumed standing up at full height. She'd eaten away her ring and pinkie fingers down to their sockets, and had paused in the process of tearing off a strip of skin from her palm, the flesh held taught in her teeth. She was staring directly at him.

If Argo had still been with him she'd have probably rapped a knuckle against his skull for forgetting one of her first and most oft repeated lessons: never whisper. Any chance he might have had to chide himself further was interrupted at she puffed her chest and belted out a shrill, rising shriek that sounded more like the blare of an alarm than a person. In the time it took for Kirito to lower his telescope, she was gone, disappearing behind a rock formation.

 _Time to go._ Wasting no more time, Kirito quickly scrabbled down from the rock, tracing his steps back towards the corridor he'd entered from. He came to a halting stop as the woman flashed across his path a ways in front of him, a quick blur before vanishing from sight again. From there, he could hear the occasional sounds of someone scrabbling and skittering over stone. One second it was to his right, then in another she was to his left or behind him. _That's not good._

Kirito pivoted in place, trying to follow where the sounds were coming from when they went silent for several long seconds. It occurred to him that this would be a very good time to draw his weapon. He was beginning to reach his still bound hands up to grasp Elucidator, still sheathed on his back, when he heard her again, much closer. Kirito quick turned just in time to see her, already in the air, mid pounce, shrieking out a predatory howl. Her feet kicked and dug into his gut and she grabbed onto his shoulders. Kirito lurched from the impact, only being saved from completely toppling over by staggering backwards against one of the stalagmites that ran alongside the foot path.

Though he'd been in the process of raising his hands to grab a weapon, he'd not lifted them far before she'd struck, and they were now pressed between their bodies, leaving his face open as she bent forward to sink her teeth into his left cheek.

Pushing his hands out, he tried to shove her off as he managed to stand back up. She released her jaws from his face and reoriented her head, trying to bite into his neck. Bracing one foot against rock behind himself, Kirito propelled himself forward against her and shoved again as hard as he could. She didn't resist, instead moving with it, jerking backwards, then tugging on him with her arms. Not meeting the expected resistance, instead being pulled after her, Kirito nearly pitched forward.

While he was off balance, the Consumed flowed around him, climbing round to clutch onto his back. He cried out despite himself as she began to bite into him again, thrashing her head back and forth as she tried to tear his flesh apart. She kicked against the same rock behind them, trying to knock him over. Positioned between Kirito and said rock, Yonaka couldn't effectively get at her.

Stomping one foot forward to stop them from going to the ground, Kirito reached up behind himself to try and grab at her. His fingers couldn't find any good purchase, slipping off the film of slick grime that covered her. She growled as she latched onto his right ear, kicking at the backs of his knees. In one last desperate attempt before being taken down, Kirito managed to find purchase, grabbing two fistfuls of the disheveled mess that was her hair. Pulling forward and down, he made to throw her over his shoulder.

Sensing his intent, the Consumed quick walked her feet backwards and up the rock behind them, kicking off and flexing her entire body like a gymnast. Instead of being thrown to the ground, she flipped over him, landing directly in front of him with her back pressed against his front. Continuing with her momentum, she reached up and over, grabbed onto him, pitched forward, and proceeded to throw _him_ over _her_ shoulder.

The next thing Kirito knew he was on his back, his head near her feet, looking up at her as she quickly chewed and swallowed the ear that she had ripped from his head during her maneuvre. He was stunned more by the sudden turn of events than the actual impact, though that changed as she stomped a foot down into his face, sending the back of his skull smacking against the stone floor. The woman was about to repeat the motion when she was sent flying to the side.

Yonaka tackled her with a pounce, landing on top of her. The cat made to maul her, but the Consumed wrapped her arms and legs around its body hugging the panther close against her. Safe from her claws, the woman then bit into Yonaka's throat beneath her jaw.

The panther yowled in pain, bucking and thrashing, trying to remove the woman clinging parasitically to her, smearing herself against the floor to no avail. Having returned to his feet, Kirito drew Elucidator and ran back into the fray.

He didn't want to risk harming his cat, so he called out a command. "Yonaka: roll over."

His pet dutifully complied, going belly up with the Consumed now on top of her. As he approached, Kirito flipped his sword around so that he was holding it with two hands by the blade near the tip. He brought it around and up over his head, swinging it down in a murderstroke. The forward quillon on his sword, its shape already a novelty, was kept sharpened, and chopped into her ribs like an improvised axe head. On the second strike, the woman released her grip, scurrying away. She bared her teeth, full of cat hair, growling and braying.

This was making too much noise and taking too much time. Reverting his hold on his sword into a more standard style, his bindings allowed him to wield the bastard sword well enough in a two handed grip. Still, if there was another way to resolve this, he'd rather explore it.

Ever since their feast, the Consumed had become the topic of many a horror story. The sort one would tell in hushed tones around campfires, with varying amounts of truth. Everyone knew who the Consumed were. Of the nine, only two of them were women. As she began to charge him again, Kirito flipped a mental coin, then shouted with as much authority as he could muster.

" _Mayumi, stop_!"

Her eyes shot open wide as she came to such a sudden halt that she had to pinwheel her arms to steady herself. The woman stared at him, her expression some kind of bewildered combination between surprise and fear.

 _At least she's not trying to kill me._ He lowered his sword down and to his side. He clicked his tongue to get his cat's attention and nodded at the ground to his other side, speaking in a soft tone. "Yonaka: come here."

The panther gave the woman what might have been a withering glare, but obeyed, padding over to him, bumping her muzzled against him once she'd taken her place.

 _Okay,_ he thought, _need to approach this quickly but delicately._

For her part, she was beginning to hyperventilate, her eyes darting all over him, then locking onto her own shaking hands, held palms up as she inspected them. Now that she was standing still, Kirito could tell that she'd probably been quite pretty once, but the years inside the game and her fractured mental state had not been kind on her.

Kirito spoke his next words in the softest, most comforting tone he could. "Mayumi?"

She wasn't looking at him, still staring at her hands, one whole, one still missing the two fingers and the portion of her palm she'd gnawed away, both filthy. She was breathing so heavily and rapidly now that he wondered if she might simply pass out. He hadn't thought it possible, but her eyes opened even wider, her features conveying a dawning realization. A long, choked back mewl began to rise in her throat.

"Mayumi," Kirito repeated, "my name is Kirito. It's not safe here. Bad people are coming and we nee-"

The mewl turned into a full-throated scream, hoarse and deafening. Mayumi began stamping her feet, screaming over and over again, still staring at her hands, as if the sight of them horrified her. She clutched her head as her screams turned into weeping sobs.

 _Shit!_ He wouldn't be surprised if they heard her all the way up on the surface with how loud she was. _What did I do?_

Mayumi curled down, sitting on her haunches, drawing her knees up and hugging her arms around them. She began trying to cover her nakedness. Giving up, she pressed her palms over her eyes, covering them as she wept, rocking back and forth.

 _I made her remember, I think._ Kirito guessed, suddenly feeling guilty. _Reminded her what she was. Made her see what she is._

The more cynical part of him had to wonder how long it was going to last.

He crouched down to her level. "Mayumi?"

Her head, which had been buried in her hands, twitched to face him, her eyes locking onto him with a jarring intensity, as if she were noticing him for the first time.

Her eyes narrowed, and she spoke, drawing out the word, "You."

 _Great, she's talking. Progress._ "Yes, I'm Kirito. Mayumi, do you know somewhere we can hide?"

"Where…" she looked to struggle to find the next word, "from?"

"I came in from up top. Outside." Kirito softly explained, finally getting somewhere. "I came in here to hide. Listen, we both need to hi-"

'No!" She spoke in halting, drawn out syllables, talking as much to herself as to him. "Nothing top. Ashes."

She stood back up, Kirito following suit. "Ashes and cinder…Sindered came, set fffire. Had-had to hide….hhhhhere? Had to hide. Had to hide. Hadto _hide_!"

"That's right, we need to hide." Kirito tried not to push too hard. "Where can we hide?"

 _Leave her alone._ Came the whisper in his brain _. Get away._

"You can't trick me!" She suddenly bellowed, angry and accusing.

Kirito blinked, trying to figure out where that had come from. "Mayumi, I'm not tryi-"

"You can't trick me! _I know you_!" She shouted again, even louder. "You're not! You're not…"

Kirito had never met any of the Consumed, before or after they'd gone insane.

Again, she struggled to find the words, settling on repeating herself. "You're _not_! You're _not_ you're _not_ you're _NOT_!"

The whisper could be heard again. _Get. Away. Slowly._

Taking the advice, Kirito began to retreat, holding his left palm up in a placating gesture, still keeping his sword low.

"Get out!" She screamed, furious, drawing out those two words long enough to empty her lungs. "Get out!"

In a bizarre display, the Consumed began to punch herself repeatedly in the temple with her partially eaten hand. "Getoutgetoutgetout _GETOUT_!"

Still shouting, she began to sob and weep again, pulling at her hair. "Can't trick me! Can't _hurt_ me. You're _not_!"

In the distance, at the other end of the chamber far away, Kirito could see orange light, moving. They'd arrived, having entered by a different, probably longer path. There was no way they could see each other yet due to the distance and obstructions, but there was little need for that when they could follow the sound.

"Can't hurt me." Her anger softened, diluted with more desperate sobs. Despite her having been the one to hunt and attack Kirito, she now sounded afraid of him. "Don't hurt me."

Kirito kept retreating. The light at the other end of the cavern began to widen as the search party likely spread out. "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise. I don't want to hurt you, but people are coming that will."

He was about to give up on her, but decided to try one more time. "Bad people are coming, but we can help each other."

She twitched bodily, her sob catching in a sharp little gasp as she made a face Kirito couldn't quite read. "Help?"

"Yes." Kirito nodded. "I want to help."

Those four words were perhaps the worst thing Kirito could have possibly said, judging by her instant and harsh reaction. The Consumed shuddered, her expression that of pure terror as she let loose a wordless, shrieking wail that left Kirito's ears ringing. She rushed him, breaking into a full tilt sprint. Seeing the threat, Yonaka move to intercept, not fast enough as the Consumed leapt at Kirito. He instinctively raised his blade, impaling her through the gut as she landed on him, knocking him over and taking them both to the ground with her astride his waist.

Ignoring the sword plunged through her, she grabbed his head with both hands, pulling it upwards before sending it slamming down, smacking the back of his skull against the floor. Stars danced in his doubling vision as she repeated the motions thrice more in quick succession. Finally taking note of the Elucidator, she removed his dazed grip from the weapon, starting to pull it out of herself as Yonaka clamped her jaws onto her shoulder from behind. With a deep growl, the cat sank her teeth in and yanked, pulling the woman off of him.

The Consumed tried to stand, but the panther bore her weight down, dragging the woman along. She was forced to release her as the woman sent a thumb jabbing into one of her eyes. Free, she quickly took to her feet, spinning round and swinging a foot in a horizontal kick that sent her heel into the cat's temple. Not slowing, she completed the spin with a step, bringing her other foot up high and straight back down in an axe kick against the panther's crown. Lastly, in afterthought, his Elucidator was pulled out of her and tossed aside.

The lights were getting closer. Bound as he was, Kirito wasn't sure of his chances in a straight fight with this woman, though he was confident that having Yonaka would tip the scales enough. Either way, if he spent the time fighting her, it wouldn't matter when the others caught up. He needed to disengage, and quickly.

Dazed but undeterred, Yonaka continued to attack, rising onto her hind legs in order to claw at her face. As the Consumed raised her arms to shield herself, the panther bit into her left wrist, locking on tightly as she continued to gouge her claws into her belly.

Reaching into one of his pockets, Kirito pulled out one of the spherical impact flares and gave it a heavy smack against the nearest rock. With a sharp, distinctive _crack,_ thin smoke began to pour from its pinprick vents. Holding the flare in both his palms, Kirito moved in, counting down the seconds.

 _This is a bad plan._ Kirito thought, taking a deep breath for what he knew was going to be incredibly unpleasant. _A bad plan._

In the short time it took for him to close in, the Consumed was already breaking loose of the panther's hold, snaking her free arm around one of the cat's forelegs and forcing the limb's joint to fully extend and twist. With a bestial growl, the Consumed flexed her arm, snapping and bending the cat's knee in the wrong direction. Yowling in pain, Yonaka released her, dropping back to all fours, failing to catch herself on her now broken foreleg and limping away.

The distraction had lasted long enough. As Kirito closed the distance, the Consumed turned back his way, just in time for him to shove his right palm, still holding the flare, against her face over one of her eyes. His other palm was pressed into the back of her skull, firmly grasping her head between his hands. She tried the same trick to break his hold, but as her arm wrapped around his he moved in closer, allowing him to bend it further, safeguarding against such a technique. Next she tried grabbing at his hands as she thrashed her head to the side, but his grip was stronger, moving to keep everything in place. Seeing that she couldn't defeat his grip as a whole, she reacted quickly, grabbing onto his index finger and dislocating it, snapping it so far as to press it against the back of his hand. Kirito winced and gritted his teeth, but held firm. This pain was nothing compared to what was to come.

Finally, the flare ignited, loudly popping like a firecracker. The two halves of the sphere dropped away. Sandwiched between his palm and her face, the white hot magnesium flares inside had nowhere to go. The acrid smell of flash burning flesh stung Kirito's nose as he pressed his palm against her face. A pained wail the likes of which he hadn't heard since Taft poured from the Consumed, loud enough that it took a moment to realize there were two voices, his joining hers. The flares burned so brightly that they shone through his hand, as though it were glowing red from within.

Kirito closed his eyes and removed his grip, having to give a stiff jerk to separate himself as his flesh fused into hers, leaving behind a haft of crackling skin on her cheek. Of the four magnesium flares, three of them had embedded themselves in her face, the last adhering to the flesh between his ring and middle fingers, welding them together until he pried it out and flicked it away. No longer covered, the area lit up with searing white light.

Free from his grasp, the Consumed clawed at her face, trying to remove the burning flares, blinded by their brilliance. One had melted into her left eye, its contents boiling and bursting in a repulsive spurt of ichor. The hair on her corresponding temple briefly caught flame, adding to the stench.

Knowing the light of the flares would only draw his pursuers in even sooner, he moved quickly, retrieving his fallen Elucidator, having to use his left hand when his right had grown stiff, his palm a cooked mess, the ruined skin cracking when he tried moving it.

As the Consumed dropped to the ground, wailing and writhing in agony, an idea formed in his head. He hated it. More so, he hated himself for knowing he was going to do it anyways.

Hurrying, Kirito opened his menu, removing his longcoat and discarding it and one of his backup swords from his inventory, letting them drop to the cave floor. Scuffing a boot against the coat, he kicked it aside. For the last touch, he drew out one of the recording crystals he'd prepared. He activated it and threw it towards the lights of the approaching search party before grabbing the hobbled Yonaka by the scruff of the neck and departing from the scene as swiftly as possible. A few seconds later and the sounds of heavy footfalls could be heard; recordings Kirito had made of himself running in place.

All at once the flares burned out, returning the area to its previous darkness. Frantically but quietly searching for somewhere to hide, his night vision ruined by the flares, Kirito finally found something promising. On top of a bit of high ground, between two crags was a deep recess. Helping his limping companion up to it, Kirito kept checking and rechecking behind them, worried that they'd be spotted at any moment. The recess was just wide enough to slip into, though it broadened out inside into a small hollow about two and a half meters around. The panther gave a grumbled complaint about being forced into the tight confines, but obeyed. Once they were hidden he peeked outside, seeing that he had a reasonably clear line of sight to where he'd left the Consumed, though at a distance so that details were hard to distinguish.

She was still lying on the ground, shuddering as she wept. Her crying turned to growling as her pain turned to rage. Pounding her fists against the floor, she came up on all fours like an animal, searching around for him. He could still see the smoke emanating from her simmering face. Rising to her feet, she turned towards the sound of the recording crystal he'd thrown, still playing its bait. With a snarl she took off after it, running so low as to occasionally run on all fours.

If everything went as planned, she would meet the search party, and they would assume by the dropped items that she'd killed him.

He couldn't see the source of any of the slowly moving lights, nor the people carrying them. Having thoroughly backed himself into a corner, all he could now was wait for them to either find him or leave. Over time, his eyes readjusted to the cavern's darkness, not that there was much to see. His pursuers were not bothering with hiding themselves, as they were not concealing their lights, but he could not hear any of them, save the faint sounds of one that would not stop whistling that same recognizable tune.

He saw one of the lights bob more rapidly, and heard a long feminine howl. Almost immediately it turned into a scream that was choked off mid breath. Then, it was completely silent. A heavy, permeating silence.

A few minutes later, and the whistling resumed, jaunty and full of cheer.

Kirito lost track of time, but however long they were looking, it was long enough for Yonaka's knee to repair itself, for his ear to reform and the skin on his hand to mend. Realizing his index finger was still hanging limply from its socket, he jammed it back into place with a soft _pop_ that to him might as well have been deafening. That taken care of, he resumed his vigil, seeing something peculiar. A small, orange pinprick of faint light, bobbing along about waist height above the ground. It took a few seconds to register it as a lit cigarette, the conclusion confirmed as he could start to make out the darkened figure that was holding it.

The figure was carrying no source of light save for the cigarette, carried casually in his left hand, apparently not needing any. Kirito could discern that in his right hand was a spear, held upright like a staff. Predictably, a red icon appeared over his head. Drawing out his spyglass, Kirito got a better look.

The figure stopped at the sword he'd dropped, crouching down in front of it. Putting the cigarette in his mouth, he gave it a long drag, briefly lighting up his face. Removing it once more, he gave a loud, three note whistle. One of the lights began to bob more rapidly, and a few seconds later another figure came into view, a man carrying a long wooden staff with a glowstone sphere attached to one end, sitting on what looked like a mirrored metal plate so that the man wielding it was cast in its shadow. He held it aloft like a magical stave, lighting his way.

Now that he was illuminated, Kirito could more clearly see the figure with the spear as the man in the business suit that had standing in the town center, controlling the birds. Just as strange as his anachronistic, modern suit was his spear. It was long, about two and a half meters, or a little over eight feet. The end pointing upwards had a broad partisan style spearhead, with wide, forward sweeping side blades that were serrated on the inner edges. The bottom of the shaft was not a pommel, but another spearhead, though this one had more of a standard thrusting point, with a boar spear design. The shaft was made from a bronze coloured metal, and at the halfway point was a broad silver ring. A bit above and below this were two straight handles, each jutting out horizontally in the same direction, and were long enough for one hand to grip. It was not a design Kirito had ever seen. A custom model, though not one Kirito could see the practicality in. The two secondary handles particularly made no sense.

Still crouched, he passed his spear to the man with the stave, picking up the discarded sword. He didn't open any ingame menus or investigative tools. Instead, he simply inspected the sword visually, then ran a finger heavily along the blade's edges. Standing back up, he gave the area a languid perusal, stopping when he came to face the longcoat. After again placing the cigarette in his lips, he snapped his fingers, pointing at the garment. When the Man holding the glowstone stave perked up, he snapped his fingers twice more, still pointing.

Obliging, the stave was pointed towards it, illuminating it. Strolling over, the man in the fine suit flicked his cigarette away and reached down to pick up the coat. With the two dropped items in either hand, he began to scan farther out. Kirito ducked inside the hollow, hiding himself, silently willing them to buy the deception.

"Is this supposed to fool me, Kirito?" The man called out. His voice was smooth, warm. Calm and inquisitive. He almost sounded amiable. "Yes, I know who you are. Have to say, I'm surprised you're up this high."

The man spoke in a tone that was both laid back and casual in its speed, yet very precise in its delivery, enunciating his words overly clearly and distinctly. "I know that you're still here…I know that you are very likely watching."

Kirito found that he was holding his breath, and forced himself to slowly, quietly exhale.

"However, I have no desire to spend the rest of my day canvassing this cavern. Frankly, you're not worth the interdictors. Used enough already, and the things aren't exactly easy to make." He continued. "So, you win for today, Kirito, but we'll be seeing you. Now that I know who you are, I know why you're here. I know where you're going. The Coffin welcomes all, in time."

After that was nothing but silence. After a minute, Kirito peeked outside the hollow. The man in the suit and the one holding the light stave were both gone. All the other lights were steadily growing dimmer as they receded, converging. Once they'd all rejoined, they faded from view back from where they had entered.

Kirito almost couldn't believe it, so he didn't, deciding to stay put until he was absolutely sure. He sat in the hollow, hiding, only poking his head out every fifteen minutes for the next three hours. There were no more washes of static to announce the renewal of the interdictor field. Playing it safe, he waited another two. He received no visitors during this, be they real or imagined, save for Asuna's soft voice in his mind gently rousing him whenever he felt the lids of his eyes growing heavy.

Satisfied that they were truly gone, Kirito readied his corridor crystal. The hollow was too cramped for the item to be used inside. The crystals would not activate in confines too small to fit the portal if it would clip into the floor or walls. For this reason, the two of them crawled back out into the open and down to ground level. The crystal brick was raised, and the words whispered to it.

"Teleport: Karak." Tossing it underhanded, it burst before touching the ground into the roiling vortex, lighting up the entire area in an intense blue.

Karak was a one of his more well stocked homes, situated in the cliffside city of Azgaraz, the last city on the sixty second floor. It functioned as one of his storehouses, as well as his preferred workshop for when he didn't want to return to Lisbeth's. It had a warm bed, plenty of supplies and the tools needed to remove his manacles.

He'd almost expected the crystal to not work. Breathing a sight of relief, Kirito turned to his pet. "Time to go."

At least, that's what he was going to say, if not for the impact that sent him lurching forwards. A slim, meter long javelin, sent sailing through the air from the depths of the cavern's darkness punched into his back, knocking the breath from him as it speared its way through him, stopping with a length of it stabbing out through the center of his chest. His breath cut off, the javelin blocking off his airway. Similar to those on the crossbow bolts he'd encountered earlier in the day, a set of four equidistant tines opened upwards and outwards.

The shaft of the javelin protruding through his chest blocked his bound hands from being able to reach high enough to draw his swords. Kirito was momentarily frozen in indecision, whether to turn and face his attacker or run. His tired mind settled on doing both poorly. Twisting around in the direction of the projectile, Kirito backpedaled towards the open portal.

He'd just taken his first step when another javelin impaled his right knee, locking the joint. With a metallic _click_ , the same fins opened like the veins of an umbrella on both ends. Hobbled, Kirito tossed himself through the gateway. Just before he passed through the threshold, he saw it. The short-lived orange glow of a lit cigarette illuminating the smiling face of the man in the suit.

Entering the vortex, the world disappeared, swallowed by the swirling blue of the space between spaces, enveloping him in the now familiar sensation of immense speed. It took fourteen long seconds for him to arrive at his destination. He emerged from the other end of the corridor in the same posture as he had when he'd entered, which was to say flopping backwards. Despite having had the time to expect this, Kirito wasn't quite able to get his feet under himself to catch him in time. The javelin lodged through his chest kept him from landing on its back, the end of it scraping the floor, painfully torquing Kirito's innards as he fell onto his side. A second later and Yonaka passed through, significantly more gracefully.

Gasping, Kirito haggardly rasped the command to close the gateway, and the portal collapsed in on itself. Again, he sighed in relief. While traveling through the corridor took some real time, closing it would cause it to collapse instantly on both ends, but would not do so if anything was still in transit. If his pursuer had entered in behind him, Kirito would not have been able to close it, therefore the man had not had time to enter in behind him.

The room he'd arrived in was mostly empty, save for the door to leave it, the shelf beside it carrying several supplies and the meter wide landing pad in the center. Using teleport crystals to navigate to registered landmarks was imprecise. For standard crystals, it would deposit someone in the general vicinity of the gateway hub of the nearest town. For corridor crystals, the other end would likewise open somewhere around the specified destination. If someone opened a portal to a landmark like a dungeon, it would put them reasonably close to the entrance. To go somewhere player owned or made, like a house, it could end up anywhere from by the front door to somewhere in the backyard. If the user owned said location, it could put them anywhere inside. The reason for this was so that two players both using corridors to travel to the same location would not collide or overlap. This was not much of an issue anymore.

To get around this, the landing pad was made. It was a simple round pad built into the floor that was tied to the location, so that any corridor crystals used to navigate to the landmark by those who had already linked with it would have their portals home in and open directly above it.

Sitting up, Kirito found tears welling up in his eyes. He was no longer unfamiliar with the action of extinguishing another person's life. At least five, possibly seven had met their end at his sword or his hands. For him, that didn't make it an easier, or feel any better afterwards. Because of his actions, he'd sent the Consumed, sent Mayumi, to die in his place. The fact that she'd attacked him first did little to soften it. If not for him, she'd still be in that cavern. Her death was his fault. He could have thrown that recorder in any direction, and he'd chosen to sacrifice her to sell a ploy that hadn't even worked.

"Don't blame yourself." She walked up to him, sitting down beside him. "I told you you couldn't help her."

Kirito wiped at his eyes, ignoring the phantom. Directing his attention to something more productive, he grabbed onto the shaft of the javelin and pulled it forward through his chest. It slid a few centimeters, eliciting a wince and a grunt. Another tug, another few more centimeters. He could feel it slipping through his insides, grating through him. Pulling it farther, what little air he had was let out as a weak cough.

She made to put a hand on his shoulder, but ethereal or not he flinched away, and she instead placed it in her lap. "The Consumed was broken long before you met her."

 _She had a name._ Stopping to try and breath, something he found he could barely do, Kirito ground his teeth. A _nd now she'd dead._

Deciding to get it over with, he quickened the pace. His gasps and coughs were ragged, weary, turning into a long, dry heave. An already frustrating enough experience in a world where it was impossible to vomit. Winking lights began to appear at the edges of his vision.

"Then think of it like this." She was disgustingly perky in her tone. Ill fitting for the subject at hand or his predicament. "She'd still be in that cave, starving forever until the end of the game. Maybe it's better this way. Like, a mercy."

One did have to wonder what hope there was for such individuals, or what would become of them once they were thrown back into the real world. Was there any coming back for people like the Consumed? Were they already damned, or so far gone as to be a lost cause? Questions that had already been asked by other people, with no answers forthcoming. He pushed such callous thoughts from his mind.

He felt something press into his back to the left of his spine, and the javelin would not pull any further. Another couple tugs made no progress. Looking at the one still speared through his knee, he again noticed that the bracing tines were on both ends. This would doubtless need tools. Standing up as best could on his hobbled leg, Kirito took a shambling step towards the door.

A loud, static _pop_ froze him in his tracks.

A second later it happened again. Turning around, a thimble sized blue spark burst and fizzled in the center of the room, over the landing pad. A trio of discharges, each quicker than the other. The fourth turned into a humming, buzzing as an arc of blue crackled into a small circle. A circle that was at once flat, yet infinitely deep, a window filled with roiling blue energy. The window hummed louder, stretching and collapsing, throwing a series of sparks with every contraction.

 _What._ Kirito began to back away as Yonaka growled.

She sounded as appropriately surprised as he was. "He's coming through."

Kirito turned to the hallucination, as though to ask for an explanation he knew it could not give, but she was already gone. With one final, crackling burst, the corridor broke open. It was not the smooth, oval portal it had been before, but a rough, distorted tear in space, its edges in constant flux, spasming, as though the fabric of the world was struggling against it. The bottom edge kept dipping low enough to meet the floor, leaving a scorch mark at every touch.

His disbelief was apparent to anyone that might have been able to see it. _You've got to be kidding me_.

If the corridor had indeed opened at the same time on both ends, he had fourteen seconds to leave before anything or anyone might start coming through. Limping over to the shelf, he grabbed the three dust covered corridor crystals he'd kept there.

He lifted one to his lips. "Teleport: Azgaraz!"

The house he was in was already in Azgaraz, but he needed to go somewhere fast, and the destination being so close would shorten the transit period. The portal opened, and he shoved Yonaka through. As he was stepping in himself, he could hear a long high-pitched crackling screech, like the rending of reality. The last thing he saw before being swallowed by the portal was the man in the suit stepping through the tear, bolts of static washing over him as he passed the threshold, locking eyes with him and smiling.

Kirito almost instantly exited in the teleport hub of the city of Azgaraz, a city carved into the side of a cliff, with every squat structure made from thick stone with decidedly classic dwarven architecture. The portal was closed behind them. He still needed to move, fast. The Karak house was within line of site to where he'd just appeared.

He breathlessly commanded a corridor to open to a random landmark, the Huntsman's Copse, intending to use the other crystal once he'd gotten there. As the portal burst open, the space where his previous corridor had closed likewise began to pop and crackle. The man could apparently continue to follow him, and he had no more corridor crystals in his inventory save for the one left he was carrying.

Limping over to the nearest archway, Kirito keyed in the destination as the last city of the floor above them, then commanded his remaining crystal to open to the first city of the one below. With three portals now open, he disappeared through the last before the tear could fully form. Arriving, he quickly dragged himself to the nearest archway, keyed in a random location and passed through.

For the next half hour, Kirito teleported up, down and around various floors, constantly looking over his shoulder, unable to remove the projectiles from his body, only stopping when he was certain his trail was lost. Finally, he made the jumps needed to put him in Lindarth.

Worn down from his exertions and exhaustion, exacerbated by his obstructed airway, Kirito took form near the archway. Out of breath and out of gas, he took two steps. On the first, his foot scuffed along the ground and stuck, forcing him to catch himself too heavily on the other. Putting too much weight on the hobbled knee, impaled for too long now, the joint snapped and the world tilted sideways.

Kirito fell, the javelin digging into the ground and sending a painful spasm through his chest. He toppled over, his temple rebounding hard against the cobblestone pavement before coming to rest. Laying there, laboriously wheezing through his abused throat, stars dancing in his eyes and his vision swirling.

"Kirito?" Came a surprised, feminine voice. In his fading view, he could see a pair of legs. Someone sitting on a nearby bench, now standing up and approaching him. A familiar pink dress with a white apron. "Kirito!"

He could only rasp one word before he asphyxiated, darkness enveloping him. "Lisbeth?"

* * *

Author's Notes: This took and turned out a lot longer than expected.

Generally speaking, there are two kinds of people nobody wants to get in a fight with. Naked people, and crazy people, so in this chapter we have a fight with a naked crazy person.

For the Consumed, I wanted something that was the result of something I don't really see in a lot of fics: possible side-effects from long term uninterrupted use of the nervegear or issues with the brain's compatibility with it, as well as it allowing scenes to have more weight due to the fact that things actually hurt.

The world of Aincrad is as damaged as the people within it, and in turn they break each other.


	9. Little Talks

_'I'm not bothered by the fact that I've killed. Never was. It's that I can't remember how many.'_

 _-Klein the Red-_

It was slow going, getting from Lindarth's teleport hub to Lisbeth's shop, despite the distance not being all that far. Kirito was completely out of breath and was only able to take in sharp, shallow gasps that never brought in enough air, each intake catching in his chest. The fact that his right leg refused to work properly didn't help matters. The knee joint had locked up straight, his foot dragging along as he hobbled along, manacled hands left swinging in font of himself. More than once he had to stop and try and force some air into his lungs. A futile effort.

He swatted his hands about his head as he heard a soft, feminine voice whispering in his ear. The voice didn't sound like it came from inside his head, but just over his right shoulder. Despite this, her words were incomprehensible and distant. All he could gather was its concerned tone.

The sun had set hours ago while he'd been sitting in that cave, but he could see well enough by the ample starlight. Arriving at Lisbeth's, he started across the short wooden bridge over the canal that powered the workshop's water wheel. He blinked, and when his eyes opened he was under water. Panicking, he flailed his arms, finding that he was on his back. As he broke the surface, he could feel the water run off of him, like fingers grasping and sliding across his skin, earning a panicked waving of his arms. The whisper returned, more urgent, apologetic. Standing up, he realized that he must have blacked out and fallen into the canal. Pulling himself up on to the shore, he navigated around the store to the workshop.

Pushing the door open, he limped in. The workshop was much as he'd left it. Not bothering to close the door, he briskly strode over to the workbench and began to search for the right tools for the task at hand. He wasn't quite sure at first which would be appropriate; he'd never had to cut a pair of handcuffs from his own wrists. He rubbed his left hand against the back of his head while he thoughtfully drummed the fingers of his right against the benchtop.

"Hey," a familiar voice called from behind him, "you're back."

Before he could turn around, he could hear a few quick footsteps, and feel her hug onto him lovingly from behind, her cheek placed against his shoulder as she softly whispered. "Welcome home."

Kirito couldn't help but smile, enjoying the welcome warmth of her embrace. Her palms were pressed against his chest, and as he took hold of her hands her fingers intertwined with his. On her right she wore a ri _ng that matched his own,_ _but neither one was his._

 _Disentangling himself, Kirito turned around to an unexpected sight._

 _He was in complete disbelief. "Lisbe-?"_

 _His question was cut off as she leaned in to plant a tender kiss on his lips before backing away, wearing a beaming smile. "About time you got here. I could really use your help today. Big order from the Broken Oath I could use a hand with."_

 _"Wha-…Lisbeth?" He repeated, able to complete the question._

 _"Yes?" She waited a second. "What is it?"_

 _Kirito raised his hands, realizing that they were free. "I'm dreaming."_

 _Suddenly, there came a thunderous grating sound, long and drawn out. At the same time, Kirito could feel his chest spasm, and he doubled over into a coughing fit. The fingers he had felt in the canal briefly returned, pressing against his chest until they faded away._

 _"Not what you wanted to see?" Lisbeth asked. Her tone was somehow not right in a way that Kirito couldn't place._

 _"Why this?" The question was more directed at himself. "Why dream this? None of it was ever real."_

 _The smile left Lisbeth's face, replaced by a mournful, wistful expression. She came close enough to place her palm over his heart. "Because you know it could have been."_

 _The cacophonous grating returned, longer and louder. The room tilted to the left until he had to adjust his footing to keep upright. The pain in his chest sharpened until he felt as though he would vomit, but instead gave a series of racking coughs that ended in a dry heave as he staggered over to the workbench to brace himself._

 _Except the workbench was gone. Everything was. In place of Lisbeth and her workshop was an endless, empty void. A pressure could be felt building in the back of his skull. Twisting around to get his bearings in the featureless expanse, he found Her, Asuna, just a couple meters away, dressed in Her guild armour, polished to such a gleaming finish that She appeared to be glowing. His footsteps produced a splashing sound which echoed in his mind, and a quick glance downward revealed the ground to be under a couple centimeters of clear water._

 _"Because you couldn't let me go." Asuna smiled wide, Her expression a poor match for Her words._

 _Another grating draw, shuddering through his being. The shallow waters rippled in sympathy. Kirito clutched his chest, dropping down to one knee with his head down as he coughed as though his lungs were trying to escape through his throat. Something solid bumped against his spine from inside his body._

 _Her steps produced no sounds or splashes as She sauntered overtop the water until She was close enough to place Her hand on his shoulder. "But don't worry. You don't have to be alone anymore. I'm here for you."_

 _Kirito tried to answer Her, but couldn't stop coughing, feeling something sliding through his chest. Spit dribbled out of his mouth as he fell to his hands and knees. He met Her eyes through Her reflection, and as the sensation of his innards being pulled intensified, Her image flickered in segments in an almost subliminal flash. Her face cycled and blinked through several configurations, with her hair changing from Asuna's chestnut brown, to black, to Lisbeth's pink, to red, lingered on lavender, then settled back on brown._

 _Her smile deepened. "And I'll be here for as long as you need me."_

 _In that instant, the water beneath them caught fire, conflagrating as though it were oil, engulfing both of them. For the briefest of split seconds, it registered that She was as surprised by this as he was, and that there was someone looming closely behind Her. Someone he knew. Before he could dwell on any of this, there came a final tug at his insides, and Kirito opened his eyes._

Kirito awoke with a desperate gasp for air, filling his lungs before scrunching up and hacking it back out, then finally managing to keep the next breath in. He could feel a hand press against his chest, and another grasp onto one of his wrists. Someone next to him saying something he couldn't comprehend. Swatting away the hands, Kirito looked to their source, and saw a pink apron worn by a familiar figure.

In his dazed state, he asked the same question he had before he'd blacked out. "Lisbeth?"

"No," Hannah shook her head, "it's me."

The NPC delivered her next words as mournfully as one could expect from a drone. "Lisbeth's…gone."

Kirito tried to stand, but his right knee was still ruined, folding sideways due to the javelin presently impaled through it, leaving him to flop back onto the floor. The floor? That wasn't right. He'd blacked out near Lindarth's town center. He should be outside, but a cursory glance around showed that he was in Lisbeth's shop. The jangling of chains and his restricted range of motion confirmed his hands were still bound, but there was no javelin through his chest.

This couldn't be real. He couldn't be here. He was still lying in the center of town, no doubt. He had to be. Helplessly waiting to wake from this dream within a dream.

Hannah's concern was apparent. "Kirito? Are you oka-"

"How did I get here?" He shouted, both a question and an accusation. "How did I get here?! I-I…I should be next to the archway."

"You collapsed by the teleporter." Hannah confirmed with a nod. "You scared me."

Kirito's foggy mind began to clear up, but he was not entirely sure he was ready to believe. "And what, you-you dragged me here?"

She shook her head again. "No."

"But..." Kirito furrowed his brow. "But you just said you…How did you get me here?"

"I carried you." Came her answer, in that obtusely stilted way that only an NPC can give. She mistook his confused expression and gave her clarification. "I'm stronger than I look."

Now that he was fully awake, he could feel a throbbing pain returning to his knee, building back up and demanding his attention.

Accepting that he was, in fact, actually awake and here, Kirito noticed the javelin that had been speared through his chest sitting on the floor in two halves next to a handsaw. "You did that?"

She nodded again.

Another scan showed that they were alone. "Where's Yonaka?"

"I had to put her outside." Hannah answered plainly. "She kept getting in the way when I had to hold you down, and you kept thrashing."

Lastly, it occurred to Kirito that his clothes were soaked, dripping water onto the floor. "And why am I wet?"

"I, uh…dropped you in the river." She cast her eyes downward, sounding genuinely sheepish. The act was borderline humanlike. "I'm sorry, but you wouldn't stop struggling."

Kirito adjusted himself on the floor into a more comfortable sitting position. This caused his knee to shift, and he winced despite himself at the spike of pain this produced.

Hannah stooped down to pick up the hand saw. "Here, let me help."

He held up a hand and told her to stay where she was, and turned his attention to the weapon, studying it. On both ends were four thick metal fins about ten centimeters long that opened upwards and outwards like the veins of an umbrella, clearly to keep whoever was unfortunate enough to be impaled by it from being able to remove it.

A javelin was not likely to ever kill anyone unless it was used to finish someone off. They were primarily used as a limiting weapon. If you could start a fight by embedding a few throwing knives or a javelin into someone, it could tip the scales tremendously. So long as the weapon remained inside them, it would deal lingering damage, bleeding away at their health until the weapon's durability ran out or their target expired. Taking the time to remove the offending items could be a fatal distraction, leaving one open to more immediately lethal attacks. A weapon shoved into a joint could severely limit its range of motion, if not lock it entirely until It broke, and in the case of something larger like a javelin, the weight could keep a man off balance, with the length of the shaft potentially hampering the range of his own weapon's arcs.

The weapon in question did not have the pressure button in the tip like the crossbow bolts, but instead jutted out from the shaft a little farther inward of the tines. No doubt the idea was that if someone had the to collapse the tines, the act of pulling it through themselves would trigger them again.

With a measure of effort, Kirito reset the tines on one end and began to pull the shaft through his leg, grimacing with every tug. Sure enough, as the button slipped into his flesh, it depressed, and the tines sprang back out. He tried to reset them again, but so long as the button was pressed they would not stay. He could saw it in half, but he'd rather preserve the item, if possible.

He raised himself up on one leg, and after a moment's thought, raised his ruined leg so that it was pointing straight out to his side. Landing on an idea, he kicked-flopped his dangling foot onto the nearest countertop. The weight of the javelin caused his leg to twist farther out of socket with a rending pain and a revoltingly wet tearing sound, ending with his foot pointing in a direction it never should.

Drawing his Elucidator, he lined it up as best he could above his knee. While weapon strikes from other people would not penetrate his flesh while within the town's safe zones, his own could, though it would still not harm his health. Raising the blade up, he adjusted his good foot and brought it down. The sword sliced cleanly through his leg, leaving a glowing red wound marker. The leg remained. He repeated the motion twice more to the same effect, then again using a sword skill. Kirito briefly considered using the handsaw. It would be guaranteed to remove the limb, but would be slow going. The prospect of how painful it would be was enough to dissuade him. Better to stick with the sword. Another couple swings and the limb was amputated. Off balance, Kirito let himself drop down into a sit while the severed leg shimmered and burst into shards, leaving the javelin and the contents of its pockets to clatter to the floor. From there, he opened his inventory, summoned a full restoration healing crystal and used it. With a shimmering light, his leg reformed, pants and all. Considering severed limbs would respawn on their own after half an hour, it was something of a waste, but he was feeling particularly impatient.

Scooping up his dropped belongings, he returned them to their pockets and his sword to its scabbard, grabbing the fallen projectile last. Paying the NPC no further mind, he started towards the back of the shop.

"Wait," Hannah called to him, causing him to pause a curious moment, "are you okay?"

He hadn't quite heard her. "What?"

The shopkeeper smoothed out her apron like she was weighing her words. "You don't look so good. Are you okay?"

"Peachy." Kirito replied dismissively. "I'll be in the workshop. Don't bother me."

He was about to take another step and stopping when she spoke up again.

"Are you getting enough sleep?" She asked, pensively. "I'm sorry, but you look tired. It's late. Whatever you need to work on can probably wait until tomorrow, right?"

"I sleep fine." He lied.

She clearly didn't believe him. "When was the last time you slept?"

"Yesterday." He lied again. She kept staring at him like she was waiting for another answer. After dealing with so many drones running on the bare minimum settings, it was a little disconcerting talking with Hannah from time to time. "A few days."

She pursed her lips.

"Fine. Four days." He answered truthfully.

Hannah wrinkled her brow in concern. "Four days isn't a few."

"Yes, it is." Kirito argued.

"No," she argued right back, "a few is three."

This was the most human conversation he had had in quite some time. The alien-ness of it was starting to bother him.

Kirito sighed. "In common use, a couple is two to three, and a few is a range, usually but not always somewhere from three to five. So, I slept a few days ago. I'm fine."

"Well," she placed a hand on her hip, "that's a few days too long. You shou-"

"Shezlore habbersnatch." He interrupted harshly.

Hannah blinked, cogitating his unexpected nonsense words, then flatly recited a reply. "I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you're saying."

The drone had been behaving human enough that it had started to get under his skin. Furthermore, his last few days were already going badly enough that he had no desire to tolerate any guff from his shopkeeper. To say his ordeals had left him irritable would be something of an understatement.

Kirito jabbed a thumb at his chest. "Player,"

He then pointed a finger at her "NPC."

Her perception filter kept her from comprehending the words used to describe her, or anything to do with breaking the game's fourth wall. She repeated mechanically. "I'm sorry, but I don't un-"

Kirito interrupted again. "Command: end conversation."

She said nothing further, made no expression. The veil had been torn aside, revealing the nothing that was beneath.

He made to leave, but a thought occurred to him. Kirito half turned back to her. "What were you doing at the town center?"

Hannah's face twitched as her personality re-established itself. "I was reading. I'd already closed the shop for the night, and I wanted to get some fresh air, so I went to the-"

"Command: end conversation." Without another word, he left her there to go to the workshop.

Closing the door behind him, he placed the javelin on the worktable in the center of the room and waved a hand to appraise it. He didn't expect his investigation skills to reveal too much; everyone else's skills in hiding any pertinent information would be high enough to countermand it at this point, anymore. Still, he could at least get a few basic things. The weapon's name, for starters.

 _'Next Time'._ He rolled his eyes, the custom-made projectile's name clearly meant as a statement to whomever managed to escape with it. _Real funny._

Knowing its metallurgical composition did nothing for him, as he had no intention of recycling it and no expectation that he could craft one like it himself. Still, it could prove useful. With that in mind it was deposited into his inventory.

Next, he summoned the other items he had recovered during his ordeal in Shyotulus. Claire's wrist cannon and bandolier were called from the ether and placed on the table. He was aware that he'd gotten them in Shyotulus, but the exact memory of their collection eluded him. Trying to focus on it made his head throb. Tired. Worry about that later. He plucked one of the stakes from the bandolier.

"She's right, you know." She stated, causing him to startle and drop the stake. The apparition was leaning against the wall by the door. "Hannah, I mean. You should get some sleep."

Ignoring Her, Kirito bent down and picked up the fallen item. As he righted himself, She was now standing on the other side of the table opposite him, leaned forward with Her elbows on the edge of the table and Her chin resting in Her palms. "And we both know you're _not_ okay."

No reply was given. There was nobody speaking to him, therefore there was nobody to reply to, and no need to reply. His focus was instead given to the stake. It had no pressure button and no fins. Just a simple cylindrical stake about eleven or twelve centimeters long, with a sharp conical tip on one end. About two thirds of the way back was a forward-facing hook that no doubt connected to the cabling, indented into the side. A slightly raised ridge ran along the entire stake, lined up with the hook. A menu-based appraisal of it gave him the name 'Arrestor Bolt'. Near the door he'd come in through was an alchemist's kit. A series of chemicals and concoctions used to determine the makeup of an item. After a minute of testing, he concluded that the stake was made from a particularly hardy material called ketracite. A dense, heavy metal, albeit too malleable to be of use for most weapons or armour. Not that any of that information mattered, just something to distract himself from his visitor.

What interested him more was the cannon it went into. It was a complicated object, most of which sat on the outer forearm. It had an adjustable clasp that fit around the wrist, as well as a full glove made from some manner of black leather with a softer cloth inside grip. The cannon itself was rather intimidating, with a fifteen millimeter wide bore to accommodate the stake. With a few waves of his hand he knew its name.

 _'Arrestor Cannon, Mark VII'._

The entire gun was made from solid pieces of burnished metal, with a nonreflective coating on the outer faces. Not a single component was native to Aincrad. By the feel of the weapon, and its bulky, blocky aesthetic, whoever had made this had manually machined each piece, likely by hand. Constructing something like this took real world skill and expertise, adapted to the game. Kirito could only guess how one would get experience crafting such items in a real-world setting. He had once thought that the siege cannons were a leap forward in weapons tech, but this was so far beyond them that it trivialized them.

He slipped his hand into the glove, feeling a measure of resistance as he moved. There were tension wires embedded into the backs of the middle and index fingers, though their purpose was not immediately apparent. It took several seconds of investigation to figure out how to even open the action, he'd only seen Claire load it once, and hadn't really had the presence of mind to observe it closely.

The barrel ran the entire length, from the stubby front to the very back. It was not a closed cylindrical tube, having a slim gap that ran along the side of the barrel that would be facing himself if he held his arm parallel to the ground, running from the front to about three quarters of the way back where it ended in a small round hole. No doubt to accommodate the cable that would be attached to the projectile. There were no sights anywhere on it, though for its intended purpose there would not be any need for them.

Kirito had no experience with firearms of any kind, and living in Japan, did not know of anyone that did. Still, he was familiar enough with some of the concepts from media to piece together that the cannon was breech loaded, but there was also a tab jutting out of the top that looked to connect to a bolt assembly. He fiddled with it, but other than jiggling, it would not move, and he saw no way to open the breech.

"Need help?" She was still there.

No response was given. Inspecting the rear of it, he found what looked like a small push button. It was stubborn, but with a stiff press there came a dull _click_ , and the breech popped out, swinging open and outwards on a hinge so that the inside face was towards him.

 _Okay, now what?_ He held his arm outstretched to try and look through the inside of the weapon.

About half a centimeter inside the back of the inside of the breech was an open ring of metal that was too narrow to fit the stake through. Placing his hand on top of the weapon, he pulled it rearward, bringing the bolt back. He could hear an internal spring compress. The ring moved with the bolt, come out of the back of the barrel, revealing it to be part of a shallow tray connected by a pair of guiding rods. It had pulled back far enough to allow him to fit the stake in front of the ring. The inside of the barrel was shaped with a slim indent which fit the ridge on the projectile, ensuring you loaded it lined up correctly. With the ring and bolt pulled open, he placed the stake into the tray. A button near the bolt released the spring and it snapped forward, loading the stake with a harsh _clack._

It occurred to him that the stake itself was not a complete round. It contained no propellant of its own. Going back to the bandolier, it had a collection of disks about half a centimeter thick. He didn't know what they were composed of, but they were coloured and textured like red sandstone, and felt like they were ceramic. If they were the round's propellant, they were obviously some form of contact explosive.

One of the disks fit perfectly inside the breech behind the ring. The breech itself was then swung closed, clicking into place and causing the button that had sprung it open to pop back out. The very back of the breech block had a small rod jutting out that was not there before. The firing pin, no doubt. The cannon was now loaded and live. Having never touched a firearm before, Kirito wasn't sure how unsafe that should make him feel. It wasn't like he'd ever expected to be handling a handcrafted line gun in a medieval fantasy game.

He looked over the device again, finding himself appreciating its construction. Despite its bulky look, it was surprisingly lightweight. Light enough that he expected he could fight with his sword unhindered while wearing it. The biggest flaw he could see becoming a problem was that, with the cannon on your forearm, it would be fairly easy to accidentally shoot the back of your own hand.

With this in mind, it was at this point he concluded he also had absolutely no idea _how_ to fire it. There was no obvious trigger mechanism. However it was fired, it didn't require the use of his other hand. He'd recalled Clair's use of it enough to know that much. He found another small button, pressed it, and was rewarded with a trio of rapid mechanical clicks. Nothing else happened. Looking inside the round hole showed that it lined up with the hook, and that the button had caused some mechanism to crimp it down into a loop. It he had loaded a cable, it would have now been securely connected.

The tension wires in the glove came to mind. Pointing his arm at down at the floor, he clenched his hand into a fist. Nothing happened. He repeated the motion a couple times to no effect.

"What gives?" He brought his arm back up to give it another once over. Another clench of his fist. More nothing.

"Want me to take a look?" She offered. When he said nothing in answer, She pursed Her lips in a frown. "Why are you ignoring me?"

 _Because you're not real._ Kirito thought, not looking at Her.

She crossed Her arms as though She'd been insulted. "Yes I am."

"The fact that you heard that confirms that you aren't." Kirito finally replied.

"But isn't this what you want?" Her tone was that of frustration.

"More than anything." Kirito admitted. "That doesn't make it so."

She pondered this for a long moment, and when She next spoke She sounded let down. "I thought you'd be happier to see me."

"In my dreams, as she was, I will be. But not like this. I know you're not her, and I know you're not here." Kirito jiggled the bolt again to no effect. "I'll go to her eventually, but…not today."

His left hand was rubbed against the back of his skull, but She was still there, staring at him with a disconcertingly intense, thoughtful expression. _When did that stop working?_

Returning his sole focus to the cannon, he muttered to himself. "Not today."

It took a few moments, but he eventually found a small thumb slide. Once toggled, a small spot of red paint could be seen under where the slide had previously been. Without thinking, Kirito clenched his fist again. His forearm jerked as the cannon fired with a loud, dull bark of a bang. Asuna's apparition yelped and jumped in surprise as the bolt shot through where She was appearing to stand, burying itself into the wall near the door.

It had a safety. Whoever had built the wristgun had the foresight and skill to include a safety. It would certainly negate the flaw he had noticed before.

The report had been loud, compounded by being fired inside the workshop. Kirito's ears were ringing, and his arm was tingling. The recoil had been heavy, though judging that the cannon had to fire a solid metal stake with such force he probably should have expected as much. Holding the weapon properly should mitigate that to some extent. He briefly pressed a finger against his right ear before he realized this meant he was pointing the cannon at his own temple. Even knowing the gun was emptied, such an action made him feel more than a little stupid.

Heading over to the door, he could see the stake had buried the majority of its length into the wood. A curious tug confirmed that it was not going anywhere.

This could prove quite useful. The bandolier had about fifteen stakes and charges left. Even if he couldn't reverse engineer the charges, he still had a few shots. The cabling was at least something he could make. With this in mind, the cannon and the bandolier were all deposited into his inventory.

Whoever this 'man on the hill' was, he certainly knew how to make his weapons.

Opening the door, Kirito gave the hallucination a last glance as he scratched at the back of his skull. "I'm done talking to myself. Go away."

Without waiting for any reply, he left Her there, closing the door behind him. She didn't follow. Entering the main building, his nose twitched as he detected the scent of fresh food. His stomach growled in sympathy, reminding him of how long it had been since he'd had a full meal. Following the alluring aroma upstairs and into the kitchen, he found a large pot lid on the dining table. Beside it was a note written in feminine script.

 _I figured you might be hungry. Goodnight. ~Hannah~._ By the closed bedroom door, Kirito discerned that the NPC had retired for the night. He lifted the pot lid to reveal a steaming bowl of thick beef stew that she must have reheated while he'd been in the workshop. _How…thoughtful._

While it was a far cry from anything Asuna used to make, Hannah had a decent set of cooking skills. System skills, not human learned skills. She could make several meals following specified, stored recipes, but she lacked any creativity or ability to improvise. It wasn't as good as a human made meal, but it was about as good as one could expect from an NPC that didn't have it as its specialization.

By now it was well past midnight, nearing two in the morning. A cloudy, starless night. If he stayed up long enough he could coast through into the next day. All he needed was something to keep his attention.

In Aincrad, the need for sleep was less pressing than in reality. There was no need for his real body to rest, as he hadn't used it for the last four years. The nervegear severed all control and sensation from his natural body. As far as it was concerned, Kirito might as well have been in a medically induced coma. While the game induced the feelings of physical tiring after exertions or time without rest, it was not actually necessary for his ingame avatar to sleep. Unlike the real world, where too much sleep deprivation could lead to or compound several physical ailments and, hypothetically, if one did not sleep at all for a long enough stretch, death, his avatar would not suffer so dearly. It would tire and slow with exhaustion, but these effects could be overcome and ignored with enough force of will.

Therein lie the problem. While his physical body was perpetually at rest, his mind was not. As far as his brain was concerned, Kirito was awake and operational, coma or no. Sleep was not just rest for the body, but the mind as well. It was time for the computer that was the brain and the consciousness within to boot down and defrag. The human mind was simply not built to remain conscious in perpetuity. It would weaken, and mental exhaustion would erode his will, to say nothing of other quirks that would eventually emerge. Quirks like the one he'd just ended a conversation with.

Save for his recent spats of trauma induced unconsciousness, Kirito had been awake for the past four days. Something that had started to become a habit. He was well aware that he needed to sleep more, but the prospect had become less appealing as his dreams seldom stayed pleasant. While he was awake he could do his best to move forward. In sleep, his mind tended to look back. There was much behind him he'd prefer remained there. Echoes he didn't want to hear.

Finishing his meal, Kirito stared down into the now empty bowl. With a long sigh, he let his shoulders sag. There was no point denying that he was weary, not to himself. A weariness that no sleep could fix. Still, he had to admit that Hannah had a point. He needed to get some proper rest soon. As the world crumbled, he'd seen enough examples of what a total loss of sleep could result in. More recently, the Consumed, who's already creeping madness was only exacerbated by their ailments.

Kirito wasn't sure how long he was sitting, staring down into the tabletop, but he came to realize that he was no longer alone. Looking up, he saw Lisbeth standing barefoot by the hallway. She was dressed in a simple, washed out teal short sleeved nightshirt that was long enough to reach her knees and function like a gown. The light from her bedroom cast her in silhouette, and the shirt's fabric was thin enough he could just make out her slender frame within it. With a blink of his eyes, her face changed to reflect reality.

"I heard a bang." Hannah stated. "Everything alright?"

"It's nothing." Kirito replied simply. He felt the need to thank her for the meal, and did so.

"You're welcome." A slim smile. Hannah covered her mouth as she yawned. She asked her next question through tired, half-lidded eyes. "Will you be staying the night?"

From any human girl, wearing such a garment in such a situation, one might read something into it, but from the NPC it was an innocent question and nothing more.

Kirito briefly weighed his choices. There was always more work to be done. Something to occupy himself. Some way to be productive, but if even Hannah could sneak up on him, unintentionally at that, then it was time to throw in the towel. There was a foldout bed kept in a closet somewhere around here in the event that he ever stayed the night. He'd hadn't used it since he'd finished rebuilding the place after the town had been razed. Sleeping here just felt…wrong. Out of place. This wasn't his home, it wasn't his shop. It was Lisbeth's. He was only keeping it running, ready for her.

Pushing his chair away from the table, Kirito wearily, slowly stood up. "No."

"Okay." She came over to pick up the bowl and place it in the sink.

With no reason to give any farewells to the drone, he headed for the stairs, stopping when she spoke up again. A developing trend, apparently.

"Hey. Can I ask a favour?" The drone hesitated a second. "I mean, if it's not too much trouble."

"What?" Kirito flatly asked over his shoulder, both at the question and the unexpected nature of it.

"Can you bring me a songbook?" Hannah wiped her hands over each other, then scooted Kirito's chair back up against the table. "I mean a music book. For the lute. I mean, if you find one, or find the time to find one."

Now thoroughly curious, Kirito fully turned to face her. "You play the lute?"

"Yes." She broke into a wide smile, then frowned and looked down and to the side. "Well, no. Not really, no."

One of Kirito's eyebrows gradually rose. He remembered that Lisbeth had owned a renaissance style lute, but had never learned to play it beyond a few chords. It had started mostly as a joke, with her stating that the game was in dire need of more bards. Some punchline about buffing stats that he'd forgotten. Joke or not, she hadn't been entirely wrong. Aincrad used to have plenty of people that were musically inclined, but like most everyone else they were all dead now. Living in a miniature apocalypse did little to inspire whoever was left to song. Not about anything upbeat, anyways.

"I was wanting to learn," Hannah continued, "there's a lute and book in Lisbeth's room, but it only covers the basics. It doesn't have any sheet music or songs."

He couldn't help but ask. "Why do you even want to?"

Hannah shrugged. "I get bored. And it's fun."

It truthfully never occurred to Kirito that the NPC, or any NPC was even capable of simulating boredom anymore, let alone to the point of independently seeking out diversions. Like reading in the town center, come to think of it. He'd always assumed the drone just stood at the desk all day, did her chores and slept until she repeated everything the next day. It wasn't like it could actually be bored, just present the façade of it.

"Will you?" She prompted after he was silent for a few seconds. "If it's not too much trouble?"

"I'll think about it." He wouldn't think about it. His curiosity satisfied, he was already putting it out of his mind.

Like how Yonaka was not a panther, Hannah was not a person. Both were tools. Shallow simulacrums of real companions. There was little to be gained, little point in indulging the desires of a hollow, pretend shell of a person.

Hannah's face lit up with a smile that was jarring in its genuineness. She was acting too human for comfort, climbing up high enough to plummet into the uncanny valley. "Thanks. I don't have any preference in genre. Anything you find would be gre-"

"Command: end conversation."

She stopped talking, her expression returning to that of a blank slate. With how much deadfaced drones could creep him out, seeing them act like the people they weren't could be so much stranger, and all the more unsettling when you removed the mask. But this was what she was. Much as Kirito would love to have someone to talk to, there was no point in acting like Hannah could be that person.

Yonaka was dozing on the front porch, waking up as he exited the door. The cat grumbled, stretching while she gave a large, toothy yawn. With a tilt of his head and a click of his tongue, the panther dutifully took a place by his side and followed as he headed to the teleporter and left Lindarth behind.

From there, he returned to his home town on the twenty second floor. While he was here, Kirito took the time to gather some flowers and deposit them on Asuna's grave. Thankfully, no hallucinations bothered him during this. After this, he meandered his way back to his house. Entering his room, he stared down at the bed.

His stilted conversation with Hannah reminded him of how starved he was for human interaction that didn't involve people that were either trying to capture him, kill him, or were naked and crazy. Kirito had a long and well-deserved reputation as a loner, but being lonesome didn't mean he liked being lonely. A few waves of his hand opened his menu and the messager within. Even he used to have a long list of accumulated contacts, but not anymore. His inbox was empty, save for two read messages he'd already long ago viewed, one of which drove him onwards, and one he'd forgotten the contents of.

Opening a new message to compose, he prodded a finger to select the 'To' field and manually typed in a recipient.

 _Klein._

His hands hovered over the ethereal keyboard, trying to think of what to type. What to say. So much time had gone by, so much had happened. So much was his fault.

After a full minute of staring blankly at the empty message, he waved his menu away. No, the wounds there ran deep, and from them had flowed far too much bad blood. Maybe someday, but not now. Not today. Best if he left the man be and kept focusing on catching up to him. When that happened, _if_ that happened, they could talk in person. Until then, he was thoroughly and completely on his own. The two of them hadn't spoken since Klein had left him behind to take up the mantle of the clearing groups. Not since they'd crossed blades. This was not even taking into consideration the other concerns he had had about Klein leading up to that event. Much like Kirito, the man he had called his best friend had been severely…damaged.

Not wanting to dwell on such an unpleasant collection of memories, Kirito put it out of his mind. Better he directed his mind towards other matters. With his horse having been lost, he'd have to get a new one, but the town had no stable, and any that did would be closed for the night. It was only a little before three in the morning, if Kirito waited a few hours he could get a new one once they opened. He could use that time to replace the impact flares he'd used recently.

His main home had a fully stocked workshop and the supplies needed for the task. Perhaps he could sharpen his swords, or practice with his throwing knives, or go on a long jog. He was still caked in ash and sweat. A shower wouldn't a bad idea right about now. There was any number of productive things he could be doing right now.

 _Stop stalling._ He chided himself.

Now that he was actually here, by the bed, he felt all the more tired. The shower would have to wait. Giving in, he resignedly removed his swords and their scabbards from his back, followed by the rest of his extensive collection of gear, odds and ends. Once there was a pile of kit on the bedside table, he stripped down to his pants. Too lethargic to bother changing them out for his nightwear, he flopped down onto the bed, mentally preparing himself for any dreams that may come to him. He was out before he could even begin to consider getting under the blankets.

* * *

Author's Notes: A look at the weapons tech that was used during the chase. Also, sleep is important.

For Kirito's behavior towards Hannah, one could argue that you cannot be mean to an NPC. Asuna was once on board with a battle plan that involved getting a boss to follow them to town to slaughter them as a distraction, after all. What the hell, Asuna.

Specific capitalizations that look out of place are entirely intentional.

With Aincrad's collapse, there are none within left undamaged.

Been trying to get some extra development of the world and meanings through the chapter headers and title names. Mileage may vary.

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 _Klein_


End file.
